Week in Review - 01-16 thru 01-22

Took Sigmund to the vet Monday and as I suspected, he's going to need some teeth pulled SOON! ACK!

Wednesday - Jeannie had her Dog and Chick gathering. Yum - yum -yum. We played Cowgirl which turned out to be this funky therapy session. TMI from me as usual.

Friday - Key Largo @ IMA - Lauren Bacall was thin as a rail. I could not keep my eyes off of the Gangster's clothing and shoes. Yet another past-her-prime drunk chick to slap around. Ugh. I must say, of all the stereotypes presented in these classic films, that's the one that actually makes me angry. A drunk guy is ok - everyone sort of accepts that it's business as usual. But...oh..need someone to talk down to or slap around? Hey, just smack the dame at the end of the bar; she's just a lush and will welcome the attention. Growl...

Saturday - Zenith @ Georgetown 14 - A little bit of work and this could've been really good. As it was, cool concept, but no follow through on parallel story line or convincing 30-years-in-the-future look or feel. Peter Scanavino was believable as Dumb Jack, although no one ever called him that. No one really seemed happy and no one seemed to be at a loss for words.

Week in Review - 01-09 thru 01-15

Tuesday - Meet the Film Buffs @ Cornerstone Cafe. A bit too defensive about not wanting to see 127 Hours.

Thursday - International Meetup Group @Siam Square. I got Pad Thai - Thai hot. Yum Yum Yum.

Friday - Criss Cross @ IMA. DeCarlo and Lancaster were smokin'. Oddly enough, the characters would often repeat the last line of dialogue and it didn't sound fake. It made sense. The final scene was plucked right out of some Greek tragedy.

Saturday - Cult Movie night at Gary's. Good night. This is the first one I've been to since October. These are just too much fun. This month - 2 From Coffin Joe.

Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter + Branded to Kill --Nikkatsu Flicks

From Nikkatsu studios - 1970 comes Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter. Well that's a bit of a misnomer. Plot bit - School girl age Stray Cat gang led by Mako (Meiko Kaji) rob squares, shop, and get high. They occasionally cross paths with The Eagles (yes) boy gang led by The Baron, who ride around in American military jeeps and dress rather smartly. The Baron hates half-bloods and goes on a killing spree. We also find out that The Baron has some problems with gravity in the bed room. Enter Kazuma - a loner on a walk-about looking for his sister. Oh, and he can sing and just happens to be a half blood. Lots of neon lights, Japanese pop groups - both girls and guys - double crossing (The Eagles sell the girls to horny businessmen) make for an entertaining movie.

Meiko Kaji is my current fav actress; I will definitely watch more of the Stray Cat Rock films. Rumor has it she's in a series of films by the name Female Convict Scorpion.

From the same studio comes Branded to Kill. This is not your mother's yakuza film. The movie starts out by showing us the various clever ways in which Hanada Goro kills his marks. What a delight - he gets turned on by smell of steaming rice. Half way though the movie, it suddenly morphs into an art house flick when Hanada gets a ride from a chick in a convertible, who likes to have the top down in the pouring rain. The dead bird swinging from the review mirror foretells of coming events. Filmed in luscious black and white to boot, it's right up my alley on eye-candy. Joe Shishido is currently my fav male actor.

I've really fallen down the rabbit hole with these two flicks. I want to pursue additional films from both camps . There has been so much really interesting stuff (to me, anyway) written about each of these features available in InterwebLand. Interestingly enough, the graphic style of both posters is heavily imitated by today's print and mixed media artists.

Also note - I've got to keep my mouth shut at the Meet the Films Buffs meetups.

Blood Simple

Saw Blood Simple at IMA last night with the Indy Film Buff peeps. I actually saw it when it came out in 1984. I don't know why, but something told me this was a film to see. Very low budget - but you can see that with some cash, these guys could take a film where no man has gone before.

Art-ish stuff - I've been drawing cartoon bones and realistic eyes. Did draw anything yesterday - quite a bit of drama at work yesterday.

I'm thinking I can count viewing Blood Simple at the IMA as an Art-ish thang.

Catching up on Movies I Saw in December - ITM4L

For the record - Do Something Art-ish Everyday - I drew a couple of cartoon femur bones that I'm going to turn into stencils for my Peeping Tom Jesus.

Most of December I had a cold that just wouldn't go away. Working in a small room with no ventilation didn't help either. It all turned into a chest infection that required antibiotics - the first one I've ever had. Needless to say, I had a bit of downtime to watch movies. I'm going to start with the earliest one and work back.

In the Mood for Love is directed by Wong Kar-wai and stars Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung. You may recall they were Broken Sword and Flying Snow in Hero. Premise - In Hong Kong 1962, two young couples rent an apartment in the same building, on the same day. The spouses of each work long hours and occasionally need to take business trips. Both are often alone and have several chance encounters. The cinematography of Christpher Doyle and Pin Bing Lee is lovely. The hall way texture/lighting and outside-the-building torn posters/rain-on-sidewalk scenes are magical. The sound track is bit quirky, combing a largely string instrument number with a layer of the most haunting violin on top with Nat King Cole singing a Spanish version of Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps.

A treat for the ears and eyes.

Do Something Art-ish Each Day - Day One

Going with the theme of either finishing something I've already started, continue working on something I've already started, or create something, but use items I already have got - I glued on the pics and paper to a black gesso canvas. I'm going to call it - Peeping Tom Jesus. Which, Googling, interestingly enough, yields this rapture party article.

I've had the canvas/paper/pics rolling around on the kitchen counter forever. The lighting is weird in the photograph - I'm taking these pictures while it's quite dark out and since I apparently live in a cave, I need to work on the flash. I like the colors and the negative space; more needs to be added at this time. I'm thinkiing of either an image transfer of an auto schematic diagram I have or maybe I'll make a MankyBones bone stamp and stencil.

I also drew an eye last night.

I found this little ditty yesterday looking stuffed inside of a mini note pad.

It's a New Day

Bad photo, but there it is.

I've needed a new pair of House Crocs for a while. I tried buying a pair of Fake Crocs from CVS over the weekend, but the Broad Ripple staff had stacked cases of beverage outside the store room, making it impossible to get near the shoe display. I work near Castleton mall, so I thought I'd give it a go Monday. The Croc Store, believe it or not, had a limited selection in my size. The purple-ish pair I tried on seemed larger than the flaming orange pair. Turns out, the purple-ish pair were made and Mexico and the flaming orange pair were made in China. The very helpful staff-chick explained that they've noticed the sizes are not constant between countries. I'm apparently a Made in China size M 4 - W 6. File that away.

I stopped by Borders on my way out. Nothing particular in mind; just going to check it out on my way to the car. I grabbed the latest issue of Mojo which has a pretty detailed article on how Fred Bulsara became Freddie Mercury. I can't seem to get enough 70's rockers in my diet these days.

I grabbed a Photoshop Elements for Dummies book. I took a Photoshop Elements class a while back, but didn't really get any reference materials. I think it's good that the instructor wanted us to understand what we were doing, think about what you're trying to do, rather than rely on some steps on a page. However, Photoshop is not the most intuitive piece of software; It's the nature of the beast. I need a bit of a reference nudge.

Lastly, I stumbled across Noah Scalin's book A Daily Creativity Journal - Make Something Everyday and Change Your Life. Nope, wasnt' looking for it; didn't know it existed. Well, maybe a tiny little bell went off in my noodle when I read the spine. (that sounds quite creepy taken out of context). Sounds pretty hooky, but I'm pretty stoked - which is unusual for me. He's famous for his Skulladay blog. Premise of the book - make something everyday. There are daily suggestions to get you thinking outside the proverbial box. I'm not going to go with a theme - Narwhal a Day or Giant Clam a Day - I'm going to just Do Something Art-ish Everyday. I have a ton of things started and nothing finished. Nothing. Yep. If I set the bar low enough, perhaps I'll actually step over it.

New Year's Eve

Great time at the Indy Film Buffs New Year's Eve Dinner and a Movie: After the Thin Man. Nick and Nora are quite the sleek duo. Asta makes me pine for a Wire Fox Terrier, but the cats would kill me; after they killed the dog.