Drool on the Frog

So long and thanks for all the fish.

2011-02-16T18:28:00.002-05:00

To all you who are still getting me through your blog Reader or RS feed...

It's time to clean up your feeds!

I haven't posted here since February of 2009. I doubt you've been waiting, hope upon hope, that I would return to write movies or my latest art project. It is more likely that you forgot this link is still in your reader.

In either case, I can settle things now. Drool on the Frog is not going away but changing. It will become a part of MyGeek's software business as a technical blog. If there are any links or articles here that you want to copy, you have until February 28 when I will archive all the current content.

I don't know how often the technical blog will be posted to; it's a work in progress.

Decay & Divine: Old Books

2009-02-13T22:15:00.029-05:00

In response to Sandi's post on SoulperSuit, "What is the oldest book you own? Does it show signs of Decay?"

For our first anniversary we stayed at a bed and breakfast in historic Jefferson, Texas. Beginning in the mid-1800's Jefferson became a major riverport town providing passage for goods to the southwest. Today Jefferson looks like it's stopped in time and is the epitome of a quaint southern town.

After touring its historic locations one day we finally ended up in one of the many antique stores. In the back, we found a musty cove of old books. We both are suckers for books, especially old ones. We got lost digging through all the fascinating titles and didn't realize the owners were waiting to close the store.

Below are some scans from the books we bought that day. I especially love old illustrations and any handwriting the owners saw fit to add. It enhances the history of the book.

Our oldest find is "Tit for Tat: A Reply to Dred" (fourth edition) by A LADY OF NEW ORLEANS published by Garrett, Dick, and Fitzgerald in 1856 or 1857.

Click on any picture to get a larger version.
The cover has an embossed pattern. It's in better shape than some of the other books we bought. 5" x 7.5"

The publisher GARRETT, DICK AND FITZGERALD only existed for two years: 1856-1857.

The only publication date is for the original edition. The copy we bought is the fourth edition.

The story is in response to the fervor that "Uncle Tom's Cabin" had in England. The author, an American living in London, noted the piety of the British supporting the book. What this author observed was Britain's own ignored class, the chimney-sweeps. Her novel is the British counterpart to "Uncle Tom's Cabin" regarding the "chummies". You can find the scan of entire first edition book on Google Books.

Love the calligraphy on the inside cover.

"Down the Line with John Henry" by Hugh McHugh, 1901, G.W. Dillingham Co., with illustrations. 4" x 6.75"

...guy-ropes and go up in the air just because his Baby is by his side.

In the back of the book, a review by the Los Angeles Express:
"As in the former volume, the present collection of stories is concerned with adventures of a man about town. It abounds in the weirdest and newest slang, recherché expressions and tart Americanisms. There is much clever satire on the manners and habits of Americans. The 'down-to-date' man who is fond of slang will find in the volume a new supply for his vocabulary."

"The Ideal Orator: A Modern Book of Elocution Readings, Recitations, Dialogues, and Plays", by Richard Linthicum, 1904, W.R. Vansant, with photos, 7" x 9.5"

These photos are fantastically melodramatic. Imagine having this as a textbook.

When flipping through this book, we noticed that you would be reading page 31, turn the page and then be on page 38. This happens continuously throughout the book. It's not until we get to the page pictured above that we figure this is a salesman's edition of a larger work. This copy contains around 100-150 pages. The complete work contains over 450 pages.

Immediately following this ad are several ledger pages. According to the "AGREEMENT" in the ad, "We, the subscribers whose names are entered in the following pages, agree to accept the number of copies of the above named book set opposite our signatures, and pay the price indicated on delivery of the same by the agent."

I have no idea why Mr. J.M. Carter would have presented a salesman's copy of an incomplete book to a child. She probably loved the pictures.

Eunice, who lived in Bethany, LA, wrote her name on several of the blank pages of the book. One the ruled pages in the back, it looks like she recorded the members of her family.

The second edition Webster's Dictionary did not come from the Jefferson trip but MyGeek's brother. We don't know how he came about it. It does not qualify as the oldest book but it might win for the biggest. 9"x12" and a little over 5" thick.

Rare Apprenticeship Opportunity

2008-12-05T10:33:00.003-05:00

Don't wait to check this out. The deadline is December 14.

The opportunity is a six month apprenticeship taught by Seth Godin at his New York office. For Free. As he describes it,

If you're stuck in a dead end job in publishing, or if you made a not-so-great choice in getting your career started, or if you thought Wall Street would be a different place, or if you just got laid off, or if you're not crazy about fretting away the next six months waiting to get fired and you're not quite ready to start your own gig... this might be the turbolift you were hoping for. Yes, it's free.

It's a chance to get off that track and onto a new track, faster and cheaper than most of the alternatives. And it might even be fun.

The details are explained here briefly and succinctly.

If you are not familiar with Seth Godin, check out his blog. I've been getting a lot of great food for thought in regards to marketing, whether it's myself, my non-profits, SoulPerSuit and Computer Training Bridge, or MyGeek's online apps site. He's an insightful and interesting writer.

Let me know if you decide to apply.

Shopping Online Part 1

2008-12-01T16:04:00.008-05:00

My sister asked me this week where MyGeek and I shop online. She was so thrilled with the information I thought I'd post it for everyone here.

We've done a lot of shopping on-line for years and we've had pretty good luck. This is because we either buy from reliable stores (referrals) or we buy from brand name stores. And that's it. You can always find a better price but you don't always know what you're getting. If you get a bad product, this is where the ease of online shopping ends. There's no store front, and as we recently learned, sometimes a customer service number is just connected to a dead-end answering machine.

Since CyberMonday has already passed and this post topic came to me late, this week I’ll post my general rules of thumb for shopping online. Next week I’ll give a very brief list of our most trusted online stores, and, finally, discuss why you would even want to shop online.

Here are my general rules of thumb:

Buy brands that you've heard of. This is especially true for high dollar items and/or electronics. Even if you buy from warehouse sites like Woot.com, try to stick with brands you know. This way you at least know you're getting a reliable product. If the product turns out to be a dud and the company you bought it from is also, the brand name company might be easier to work with and more likely to want to keep it's good reputation by making you a happy customer.

Avoid buying refurbished products. You will see this mostly with electronics, especially on sites that don't specialize but carry everything from cameras to bean bag chairs. Be sure to read the product description. There may be a tag that says "Condition" and will list whether it's “New” or “Refurbished”. The problem with these sites is that you don't know who refurbished the item and it's not likely there's any technical support if the product doesn't work. Usually these companies only have sales reps. I don't recommend buying refurbished electronics unless you're buying them directly from the manufacturer. For example, Apple. I bought my MacBook Pro refurbed but I bought it directly from Apple. It came with the same warranty as a new MacBook Pro and Apple has good customer service.

Buy from reputable on-line stores or from brand name stores. Find out where your friends, family, and co-workers buy online. If you have a local store that you like, look them up online. More than likely, they have an online store. The same is true for your trusted mail order companies. For example, if you have a brand of clothes you love like Land's End, buy online. They have great customer service.

Buy if you know they have a storefront somewhere. A storefront means they have a physical location you can either visit or call if you have problems with their product or online ordering. More than likely, if they have a store front they also have well established customer service for their online store as well, but at least you have a backup plan and a little confidence that they exist somewhere besides their mother's basement. An online store does not have to have a storefront to be considered reliable. There are plenty of reputable online stores, like Buy.com, that started out online and have stayed there.

Buy on sites with secure shopping. If you follow the general rules I have outlined here, you're going to end up on a site with secure shopping. But, if you're not sure, check the bottom right hand corner of your window when you go to checkout. There should be a little padlock image there. If the padlock is in the locked position, the site is secure. If it is unlocked, the site is not secure. This icon only appears once you get to the checkout process.

Can’t wait until next week for my online shopping list? I have one word for you.
Amazon.

MoPo: Kyle Webster

2008-12-01T14:31:00.004-05:00

This week I want to introduce you to local artist and illustrator, Kyle Webster.

I remember meeting Kyle when he worked for Shapiro Walker. The company I worked for at the time was looking for a design firm to revamp our company web site. I recognized his work from city event banners hanging downtown. Kyle talked to me about digital art and you could tell he just loved to draw. He was even thoughtful enough to connect me with a life drawing group that was meeting in a sister city.

Since then, Kyle has made the full transition from working for someone to being a successful freelance artist. His work has appeared in Paste, The Stranger, and The New Yorker and, most recently, The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Wall Street Journal. Congratulations, Kyle.

The distinctive feature of Kyle's work is line. While I admire and marvel at work that is about color because it's not what I do well, I love line because I connect with it. And what he does with line - wonderful.

His web site features blog postings about his work as well as his portfolio. In addition, as if he weren't busy enough, check out The Daily Figure blog and his first issue of the Light Children comic book.

MoPo: Brian Dettmer

2008-12-01T08:00:00.001-05:00

Brian Dettmer takes altering books to, well, an art form by actually carving into the books to reveal the art inside. It's really amazing and you just have to see it.

Per his wiki, Dettmer takes media whose content has ceased to be relevant and looks at turning it into new, relevant content.

This is such a beautiful idea because I love books. Although I do a lot of reading on-line, I can't ever imagine living somewhere without a library or physical books. Although MyGeek thinks altering a book is sacrilege, this technique of Dettmer's puts books in the category of beauty that I see them.

At the Packer Schopf Gallery, Chicago, IL.

MoPo: Jen Stark

2008-11-24T08:00:00.000-05:00

I love paper. A disturbing thrill comes over me whenever I enter an office supply store. Even as a kid I remember flipping through those marvelously blank pads of paper, any kind, and not understanding the uncontrollable desire to buy them all. I have the hardest time throwing away even the smallest scrap. Maybe this is why I'm drawn to the scuptures of American artist Jen Stark. She works with paper. Stacks and stacks of colored paper.

Her inspiration comes from scientific subjects (fractals, worm holes, anatomy) and her tool of choice? An x-acto knife. How wonderful. I love my x-acto knife. The sculptures are beautiful and scientific looking at the same time even though she does it all from sketches and by hand.

Stark was also featured in Wired magazine.

MoPo: Ferry Staverman

2008-11-17T08:00:00.001-05:00

I was escending* through some blogs one day this week and ran across several artists I want to introduce you to.

Ferry Staverman is a Finish artist who does wonderful things with cardboard and string. Most of my research only turned up dozens of blogs pointing to his work and web site so I have very little info on the artist. If you happen to read Dutch, you'll enjoy more than the impressive portfolio.

Once again, I'm drawn to artists who use everyday, found materials to create amazing visual interest. It seems they see beauty in everything. The idea of keeping things simple and being creative with what exists is a personal goal so these types of artists are very inspiring.

*escend - The process of following a link from one web site and/or blog to another repeatedly. A form of electronic rabbit chasing. (ex. Sam escends for hours resulting in his cache of obscure trivia.)

Fall and the Dog

2008-11-12T16:18:00.002-05:00

MoPo: Jan von Hollenben, photographer

2008-09-22T08:00:00.000-05:00

I love the photography by Jan von Holleben. He uses perspective to compose the most unique photos.

In The Great Masters he uses nothing but hands and arms to recreate works from art masters like Picasso and Mondrian.

Using depth, perspective, and some retro furnishings see what kind of superheroes he invents.

But my favorite is the group called Dreams of Flying. These look like so much fun. Using everyday objects, he creates the most amazing special effects. It's fun to come up with your own Dreams of Flying. Be sure and see the creativity von Holleben has inspired.

MoPo: Coffee & Foam Art

2008-09-15T08:00:00.001-05:00

Some might say that artists can be characterized by their addictions (caffeine, nicotine, or, um, others). But I never thought about making my addiction the art - two of my favorite things in the world. See what these creative individuals can do with the foam on the top of their cup of joe.

Enjoy!

I'm sorry, I don't remember where I found this original link. I like to give credit and also hook you up with other good resources, but all I recorded was this link.

Project: Oil Tank 3.0

2008-09-10T18:08:00.016-05:00

Project: Oil Tank 1.0
Project: Oil Tank 2.0
Project: Oil Tank 4.0

I was able to paint some yesterday but the rains started in the afternoon and they're predicted to continue through the week.

Color science is very complicated and I won't even pretend to know much about it. If I did know more, I might be more comfortable using color. I do know that the color you see on your computer screen or in a projected image is entirely different than color you get in paint or color pencils. I bring this up because my design was created on the computer. A computer monitor creates color using light. Color on paper is created by mixing ink pigment. That's why your printouts don't look like what you see on the computer monitor. These are two different color sciences.

Color palette for the front of the tank.

Color palette for the side of the tank.

Here are the "color swatches" for my design. Even these don't look totally accurate. That taupe color in the Front swatch (RGB 139, 104, 76) is really a red mauve and the black in the Side swatch (RGB 0,0,0) is kind of dark brown. Color is tricky.

The night I traced the areas for the red mauve color, I started out using a red based prisma color but, at night, I couldn't see my pencil marks so I couldn't tell where I was at. I quickly had to switch to a blue prisma pencil that I could see in the projection. When I started painting the yellow, the brush sometimes picked up the blue prisma color and blended into the yellow making green. This is something I thought might happen but, there's so little blue getting mixed in, I don't think it'll be a problem with a couple more coats of yellow.

I was also worried about the prisma colors creating a resist to the acrylic, sort of like trying to paint on waxed paper. There's been little trouble with this except for the yellow prisma color. It's interesting that the yellow pigment created more of a resist than white, blue or red.

The paint is going on kind of thin. Since the background is black, the paint is somewhat transparent, so, I'll need to put on two or more coats to get the colors opaque. My original plan was to completely finish all the white and then move on to the next lightest shade and completely finish it. This became kind of boring so then I switched to covering up all my trace lines with the appropriate color.

This turns out to serve second purpose. Getting my design traced using the paint will help preserve the design. I have it covered in plastic and I don't think the prisma colors will wash off easily but with seven days of rain I didn't want to take any chances. Even if the tank just ended up with splatters of dirt and mud, it would be impossible to get off without ruining the prisma color lines.

Tracing in all the colors also showed me how complicated my design is. Looking at a yellow line I'd know that either to the right or the left of that line is suppose to be painted yellow but the other side is suppose to be painted mauve. But which side? I'd have to trace the yellow line back or check the print out of my design to figure out which.

During the rainy days to come I'll probably read my backlog of library books (all due 9/22), write to my blog, and put together the curriculum for my PowerPoint and Word classes. I also need a new art project after this one!

The next step is to order the laquer sealer, mix the colors for the frog and then paint, paint, paint.

(As I write this I'm enjoying a cup of Iced Hazelnut coffee from McDonalds.)

Project: Oil Tank 1.0
Project: Oil Tank 2.0
Project: Oil Tank 4.0

At the end of week 3

MORE ON MIXING PAINT
I took the RGB values (the way color is formulated with light) from my computer design and tried to get a CMYK color (the way color is formulated with pigment) to match it as closely as possible (To do this I used this tool by Peter Forret). I thought the CMYK would help me with mixing the paint. For instance, the yellow color (CMYK 0, 0, 17, 0) has 0 Cyan (blue), 0 Magenta (red), 17 Yellow, and 0 blacK. Since the color is a tint of yellow I figured it was 17 parts yellow and 83 parts white. This theory worked o.k. with the first two color mixes but was way off when I mixed the red mauve (CMYK 49, 51, 78, 2). I did not need 49 parts blue! I ended up adding tons of red and some more yellow to get the shade right. Oh, well, it was an interesting experiment. I was just glad I got the colors mixed fairly easily in the end.

Some other helpful web sites regarding color charts and colors for web sites, try these:
HYPE'S Color Specifier
VisiBone's free color services (scroll to the bottom of their home page)

My model.

MoPo: Woodrow Wilson High Seniors

2008-09-08T08:00:00.000-05:00

I love seeing art encouraged in kids - especially in the 9th-12th grade years. Studio arts are rare at the grade level. Probably budget cuts.

Anyway, check out the wonderfully creative art project at Woodrow Wilson High in Dallas. (MyGeek found the link from FrontBurner, a great Dallas area blog.) As a fundraiser, Seniors could pay to paint their parking spots. Lots of creative work. Although some of them look like they've maybe had graffiti experience before. Hmm.

At least the young are being raised on good quality rock music.

Project: Oil Tank 2.0

2008-09-03T19:07:00.020-05:00

Project: Oil Tank 1.0
Project: Oil Tank 3.0
Project: Oil Tank 4.0

Most of my crazy projects are done for two reasons: to do something fun and to learn by doing something totally new and experimental. There's been a lot to learn from my oil tank project.

This past week I got the entire design traced onto the tank and started painting.

First, I altered the colors in the design. When I tested the projection of the design against the tank, it was hard to distinguish the white areas from the pale yellow so I change white to blue.

It only took two nights to trace the design: one night to trace the end design and one night to trace the front design. Our friend, TJ, owns an A/V company and he generously gave me a long term loan of one of his projectors: a Panasonic PT-LC76U LCD. I had to do all the tracing after sunset and I only had one shot to get the design done. There was no way to do part of the dog's face and then come back and finish it on another night - it would be impossible to realign the projector exactly where it was the night before. The largest part of the design took me a little over two hours to trace. The very exciting 21 second video below is me tracing the end design and swatting away bugs attracted to the light.

I wasn't quite sure what type of pen or pencil was going to write effectively on the tank. It could be permanent as long as the acrylic paints would completely cover it. It couldn't be too sensitive because it would probably take me a couple of weeks to paint the whole design so it needed to hold up to the afternoon sun. I have the tank covered in plastic so hopefully it won't get wet. By accident, I discovered the most effective drawing tool was Prisma color pencils. (See below for more details on the pens I tested.)

Now that the design was on the tank, I could work in the day time when there were fewer bugs!

To save money I bought only white, red, yellow and blue acrylic paint (I already had black). Even though my design only has seven colors, at around $9 a tube, it was going to cost a lot so I'm going to see how difficult it's going to be to mix my own colors. Buying the four colors in a set was like getting one tube free.

I start by painting the lightest color first. The first day I painted I got most of the white finished.

Next I will need to mix the remaining paint colors and store in air tight containers.

Stay tuned for updates on this project.

(As I write this I'm enjoying a warm Duncan Hines Peanut Butter Cup Candy Shop Brownies and a side of Breyers All Natural Homemade Vanilla ice cream and a bottle of Le Bleu water.)

Project: Oil Tank 1.0
Project: Oil Tank 3.0
Project: Oil Tank 4.0

DESIGN IN CORELDRAW

I created the original design for Art Unleashed 2006. Here is what I remember, step-by-step, of that process from two years ago using the CorelDraw Graphics Suite software.

Snap several pictures of your dog until I find the one you want to work with.

Upload the pictures to your computer.

Open a new document in CorelDraw.

Select Import under the File menu and import the picture.

Double click on the picture to open it in Corel PhotoPaint.

First, I cut out the image of Willa (cutting out all the background) using the Cutout Lab under the Image menu. Cutout Lab works best if you are zoomed in tight on your image, especially if you're dealing with hair or any fine textures. I made my nib size at least 15 and then traced around Willa's head. (Click image to enlarge.)

When finished tracing, click Ok. The Cutout Lab window will close and the traced image, minus the background, will appear.

Fix any red eye, if you have any.

Save the cutout and close Corel PhotoPaint. The cutout should now appear back in CorelDraw.

Next I did a PowerTRACE. Right click on the image and select Trace Bitmap/Low Quality Image. There are several options to choose from here. You need to decide how much detail you want in the traced image and how many colors you want to use (I used 5). You just have to play with this.

Don't forget to save your work.

PROJECTION ISSUES

The design is very complicated so I need to project it onto the side of the tank and trace it. My friend Erin asked me if I was going to use a tracer projector. I didn't even know these existed but, sure enough, you can buy a simplified projection system for enlarging and projecting. She said she got hers for about $30. I found some on DickBlick but you could also use the weekly A.C. Moore 40% off coupon to get one.

The initial color of the tank was gray. The background color of my design is black. What I had to test first was whether my design would project onto a black surface. When it comes to color and light, I know a lot less than color in print. While the tank was still gray, I projected my design outside onto a piece of black cardboard. The design showed up clear as a bell. This was great news because it meant that I could paint the black background before starting the design not after it was finished which would be much more tedious.

It would be even more impossible to trace part of the design then set up the projector the next night and line it up to what had already been done. Projection is way too sensitive for that (zoom, focus, tilt, horizontal level, etc.), not to mention positioning the image source in the exact same spot as well. Even while I was tracing the design, I noticed it would creep a little. How and why is still a mystery to me.

PENCIL TEST

I tested several writing implements to see which would:

semi-permanent to permanent
not be affected by heat
not be easily rubbed off
covered over easily with acrylic paint

Here's how the test went:

Sharpie Metallic, silver- Works great but the tip is too broad and there aren't enough colors.
Sharpie Poster Paint, white - Worked great but the only store where I knew they were sold has gone out of business.
DecoColor Opaque Paint Marker (extra fine tip), silver - Difficult to work with; expensive for this kind of use.
Conte Pastel pencil, white - Too delicate; easy to rub off.
Stabilo All, orange, yellow, green, red - More brittle than I expected. Worked better than anything else but I only had three colors.

The Winner - Prisma color pencils
Not too soft, lots of colors, and I can sharpen them to as fine a point as I want.

PAINT

This set comes with a color wheel poster with instructions on how to mix paints.

MoPo: Sam Winston

2008-09-01T08:00:00.002-05:00

I love type! I've always been a font junky. Seeing letters as an art medium is just another way of proving I'm a geek.

Check out the 2-D type sculptures/collage of Sam Winston. For me, they are absolutely thrilling and exciting.

As my friend, the pharma rep says, "It makes me happy."

Willa's Flic Pic: The Darjeeling Express * * * ½

2008-08-29T14:11:00.002-05:00

The Darjeeling Express
- Wes Anderson
- Drama/Comedy, 2007
- R
- Trailer
* * * ½

Francis: You don't love me!
Peter: Yes I do!
Jack: I love you too, but I'm gonna mace you in the face!

I’ve seen all of Wes Anderson's films except for Bottle Rocket, which I just put on my Netflix list. Anderson is the producer, writer, and director of all his films, including the more well known Rushmore.

The common theme throughout Anderson’s films is outrageous characters and the function of families full of outrageous characters. Although most may watch his films and think they don’t identify with his characters, looking from the outside in, more of us resemble this behavior than we may perceive or want to admit.

After his success with Bottle Rocket and Rushmore, I wonder if the reviewers grew tired of his theme. There are not nearly as many rave reviews for The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and The Darjeeling Express, both of which I really enjoyed.

If you are a casual moviegoer, you may simply observe strange characters, sometimes in unusual settings, doing completely nonsensical things. "What are they doing?" and "why did he say that?" will run through your head often. But, as in real life, what we say and what we try hardest not to say is what holds an infinite number of subtleties about our relationships and ourselves.

For me, Anderson’s films are a great experiment in the complexities of communication in the family dynamic. A father may say, "Change the channel to whatever you want to watch," but the meaning may be, "I'm making a gesture of being polite but don't you dare change the channel."

These are the subtleties that Anderson plays with in very absurd and comic ways with only a sprinkling of heart wrenching sadness, just enough to make you realize he's just made a point but not so strongly that you leave the movie sad and depressed.

The Darjeeling Express is a complicated tale of three brothers reuniting after a year. What happened a year ago and since is revealed casually throughout the story. When you are finally equipped with a modicum of this information, you must think hard to look back over the outrageous behaviors throughout the film and recognize how it explains that odd behavior, very much like life itself. We forget all of the revealing moments and thus fail to interpret "Change the channel" in the way it was intended.

Anderson also has a beautiful style with the camera. Color and perspective are extremely important to his compositions. This is really played out in The Darjeeling Express, which is set in the rich and colorful India. Anderson does such a great job with the filming that you can almost smell and feel each scene; it's very immersing.

Anderson also incorporates what I call living dioramas – a very brief close-up of a small scene with one character and only small movements that tell a one-sentence story. This is a very daring technique given the stress of efficiently using the two-hour length of film and your audience's brief attention span.

I haven't mentioned anything about the cast but it is stellar. Like Joss Whedon and M. Night Shyamalan, Anderson has cast some of the same actors throughout all of this projects: Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Bill Murray, and Jason Schwartzman. They all seem to understand the importance of Anderson's efficient use of dialogue and movement.

For a study of dialogue and the power communicated through actions, use Anderson's films as some of your subject matter.

Project: Oil Tank 1.0

2008-08-27T08:00:00.003-05:00

Project: Oil Tank 2.0
Project: Oil Tank 3.0
Project: Oil Tank 40

You've heard the phrase "putting lipstick on a cow?" Well, that's kind of like my current project.

Last year when the nights were beginning to get really nippy, we scheduled to have our heating oil tank filled. When I got home that day I knew something was terribly wrong. The air outside wreaked of heating oil and inside the house was just as bad. It turns out that our oil tank was too old to handle the weight of 240 gallons of heating oil and sprung a tiny leak. This is the hard way to find out that your heating oil tank needs to be replaced.

The old tank was in our basement which caused the whole house to smell. The new tank is installed outside to avoid this kind of problem. After installation, we were informed that the tank had a primer on it but would need to be painted within a year to ensure longevity. Paint, you say? Sounds like a canvas to me.

I immediately hatched a plan to paint a mural on the oil tank. I just love this idea of private graffiti.

Since the tank sat for almost a whole year before I started the project, it had already developed some rust. First step, sand away the rust with a wire brush and some medium grade steel wool pads.

The next step was to spray Rust-oleum Professional Gray Primer on all the scoured places.

The background color of my mural is black so I put one coat on the entire tank using a roller and paint brush of Behr Premium Plus Ultra Exterior Satin Enamel that Home Depot mixed to a shade of Lamp Black.

Next I will need to trace my design onto the tank using a projector. This will be followed by painting the design with artist acrylics, and then sealing it with lacquer.

Stay tuned for updates on this project. Currently it's raining.

(As I write this I'm enjoying a bowl of Ben & Jerry's new flavor, Imagine Whirled Peace, and a cup of Krankies Decaf Costa Rica Cafe Vida.)

Project: Oil Tank 2.0
Project: Oil Tank 3.0
Project: Oil Tank 4.0

MoPo: Jennifer Maestre

2008-08-25T08:00:00.002-05:00

After spending a great deal of time in a certain field, you tend to develop a keen eye for things that others don't even notice. As the result of studying art, design, and illustration for several years, I've developed an eye for the small print. Mostly in magazines. Any time there's a photo or illustration, I look for the teeny tiny type that gives the name of the photographer or artist who created it. I'm a regular reader of WIRED magazine and am thrilled at their high quality of illustrators and photographers and their interest in hi-tech art. Besides marking interesting web sites and memorable quotes as I read, I'll also highlight any photographers or illustrators so I can find their portfolios on-line.

Every Monday I will feature the portfolio (MoPo or Monday Portfolio) of a current artist, illustrator, and/or designer I've found.

Today's featured artist is Jennifer Maestre. You can also check out the WIRED blurb here.

Jennifer does some amazing sculptures with pencils. That's right, folks, pencils. You have to see it to believe it. I love the creative take she has on such an everyday object.

(I have a personal rule that I will include at least one picture with my posts, but, since these are currently working artists and I value their copyright, I will not be including pictures of their work. I will, however, provide direct links.)

Snap Shot City Winners!

2008-02-20T16:52:00.001-05:00

I thought I had posted about this already! I still don't have my head.

You might remember that MyGeek and I participated in Snap-Shot-City back in September 2007. Well, they announced their winners in November and one of our photos was selected in the category "Step by step"!

I was so thrilled! We were in the middle of NaNoWriMo so I know why I didn't post about it then. I can't wait to do this again this year.

Check out all the winners here.

Where Have I Been?

2008-02-18T16:29:00.003-05:00

My first post since November 18, 2007 was last week without any explanation of where I'd been.

Three months without a word.

I was barraged with e-mails and letters begging for my return and concern for my well being. There was even a missing persons report filed!

Well, not exactly. Actually the only comment I got was asking for this blog to be "exterminated". I can only figure that's because they didn't like my review of Doctor Who. Cool. At least I got a reaction out of someone.

I think everyone who does read this blog know exactly where I was and what happened. You know that I was... indisposed. The rest of you fair weather fans or newbies will just have to speculate. Use your imaginations, I haven't had my 15 minutes of fame yet.

Willa's Flic Pic: Carnivàle * * *

2008-02-15T16:21:00.000-05:00

During the writer's strike MyGeek and I added some cable shows to our Netflix that we have missed in the past: Carnivàle, Entourage, and Rescue Me.

Carnivàle * * *
- Daniel Knauf
- Drama/Fantasy, 2003-2005
- Trailer
- Seasons 1 & 2

Justin: (shaking hands) I'm reminded of the phrase "making a deal with the devil".
Tommy Dolan: Aw, come on. I'm not that bad.
Justin: No. You're not.

The basic story of Carnivàle is Good vs. Evil. On top of this conventional idea the creators of Carnivàle place the most extraordinary people during an extreme time in history.

The main cast is made up of the members of a traveling carnival. A second story line is set in California with a preacher and his devoted sister. All of these characters are imbued with extraordinary powers, secretive pasts, and intense circumstances.

There is just never a dull moment in this show. We’ve finished season one and are pretty floored by its extremes and uniqueness. The show is gritty, uncomfortable, weird… and absolutely fascinating. My biggest complaint would be that there aren’t enough answers to the innumerable complex mysteries they’re presenting. (This is what has also completely worn me out with Lost.) The show was cancelled after it’s second season and I wonder if it was due to this or its constant serving of the bizarre. After we finish watching season two, will I be as sad that the story didn’t continue as I was with having only one season of Firefly.

Entourage *
- Doug Ellin
- Comedy, 2004-2007
- Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4

Ari Gold: Let's hug it out, bitch.

I watched four episodes of Entourage and could not find a single way that one was different from another or that that was going to change in the future. I think I've seen everything that Entourage entails. It is completely forgettable. And it’s not entirely due to the basic premise of the story: the wild and crazy life of an up and coming young movie star in L.A. and his closest friends.

The idea is very interesting with the potential for great laughs, it does have it's moments with some memorable lines (usually delivered by Jeremy Piven's character, Ari Gold), and most of the acting is good. But, as one blogger described it, this is a teenage boys fantasy: constant partying, no jobs, excessive wealth, drugs, and hot women. It's a niche demographic that could not possibly appeal to me. If it weren't so seriously degrading to women I could at least accept its success. I hope any guy who models himself after any of the male characters in this show gets his lights knocked out by the first woman he tries to hit on.

Rescue Me * *
- Denis Leary and Peter Tolan
- Drama/Comedy, 2004-2007
- Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4

Tommy Gavin: Bless me father for I sinned... and so have you.

It's really difficult to tell you what Rescue Me is about. IMDB says, “Tommy Gavin (Leary) deals with the fears of his job as a firefighter and seeing his ex-wife dating other men.” This is a pretty simplistic description since the manifestation of Gavin dealing with his fears is that he sees and talks to deceased fire victims. This might be interesting but the show just seems to be too many things - a comedy, drama, soap opera, social statement, memoriam, and guys club. The mood and focus seems to shift constantly. The main reason I was interested was because of Denis Leary. He's really great in this as is the entire cast. The issue here is the story having too many places to go. There was just never one thing sustained long enough to keep my interest.

Loco for Coco

2008-02-14T17:02:00.001-05:00

I was very specific this year as to what I wanted for Valentine's. I was craving a traditional box of chocolates with all of their miniture nut, cream, caramel, and toffee surprises. But I wanted really good chocolates, not the Russell Stover box you get at the drug store. We have a local shop called Sweetie's that orders in chocolates from Texas and Vermont. There's also a Godiva shop in the mall. I told him either of those would do. It didn't have to be a big box, just good.

As is typical, MyGeek goes one better. He found Loco for Coco in Greensboro that opened only last October. I got the heart box you see above filled with the truffles they make themselves. They really are quite delicate and divine. What more could you ask for? I've been having truffles for breakfast and dessert. And I'm not sick of them yet.

NaNoWriMo: Lessons Learned

2007-12-02T20:08:00.000-05:00

I have to admit, I didn't make 50,000 words in November for NaNoWriMo. It is more like 24,000. But I did reach my goals:

Learn Something.
Where most seasoned writers start off strong and hit a wall in the second week, I started off really slow. This may be due to the fact that I didn't know what I was doing. Story telling is also new to me. With an extremely low word count at the end of the second week, I had to pull some tricks out of the hat to get the count up and they worked.

I formatted my Word document to build a Table of Contents of my chapters on the first page. This helped because I could always go to the first page (Ctl + G) and simply click on the chapter I wanted to work on. This allowed me to hope around and not have to scroll and scroll and scroll...

I also used this to build chapters to outline my story. Although I don't think you're suppose to do this during NaNoWriMo, I needed the structure. It also boosted my word count tremendously! I would title the chapter, state the setting and time period, and then simply write notes on what was suppose to happen in that chapter. I had several plot ideas so I allowed me to plug all those into the appropriate chapters. I also used worked out my gimmicks. Every chapter was going to have a television in it so I tried to make notes about how that would come into play. The week I did this, I started having fun. I wasn't stuck with a straight line of telling a story; I could just around all I wanted, anytime I thought of someting.

Meet New People.
The Winston-Salem Writer's were big participants this year. I'd like to thank them for being so welcoming and generous to us non-members and first timers. We meet twice a week at Krankies with some of them and some non-members. I think all of them meet the 50,000 word goal.

Do Something Creative.
I admit, this was one of the hardest things I've ever tried to do. I don't know if I'll do it again next year or not. At least not without practicing a little bit more between now and then. Most writers say they see stories everywhere. I had trouble coming up with one idea. Maybe that's what I'll work on. Just making up stories. A great place to do that is Bruce Bethke's Friday Challenge.

Until next year? We'll see.

NaNoWriMo: Exert 1

2007-11-16T13:31:00.000-05:00

I'm absolutely buried with writing my novel. I'm about three days behind. That's 9500 words! It's much harder than I thought but I'm learning a lot and it is really fun. It's much easier if you're not concerned about getting published.
I don't have time to watch any movies or post here so I thought I'd torture you with an exert from the novel. It's really dreadful but it's worse when you know that it's probably one of the better parts. Proceed only if your literturary sensibilities are not fragile.

Working title: The Mad Osakazuki Five of Cal-Tech

Genre: Adventure

SOMEWHERE IN THE US, 2007

Seated on a stool, a tall dark haired man in a crisp white lab coat looks through a microscope. Ichi is stern, serious, and calculated. His colleague, Ni, stands next to him impatiently. Ni is much shorter, only able to reach eye level while his colleague is seated. In the background a small color television is tuned to a national news channel. "It's successful, isn't it?" Ni finally prods.

Ichi takes his time looking up and responding. Instead of looking at Ni he watches the events unfolding on the broadcast. "Yes. We've done it."

"Bonsai! It's good to finally hear you admit it. We've tested the damn thing enough." Unable to contain his energy he paces back and forth in a small zone around Ichi. Waving his arms, "Can we start development now?"

Ichi's gaze never leaves the television, "Calm down. We need a plan. And a conduit."

The words scrolling across the bottom of the news story tells the viewer of the groundbreaking taking place in New York, "We will be getting live feed in just moments of this historic occasion…".

Ni can barely contain himself, "But nothing can stop us now. This is fool proof! Our destiny is finally realized! We can exact our revenge"

"That always was your problem, Ni. You never calculate for the unexpected. Or in your typical, overblown sense of self-importance have you already worked out how we’re going to get this distributed globally without detection?"

As usual, Ni moves from point A to point Z in one stroke. He never learns. That's why Ichi was number one. "We'll drop it into rain clouds or use guided rockets over major cities or…" he trailed, his mind grasping at something that would dazzle Ichi and get things moving. "…or drop it into all major water systems."

The nationally popular female talking head can be heard commentating the unfolding events. On screen, the camera pans across hundreds of thousands of people, standing in the city streets, bundled against the cold, and waving small pale pink flags emblazoned with a green flower. "All of New York, and through this broadcast, the world, has turned out to witness the historic groundbreaking of the first totally green high rise building in downtown Manhattan. After years of planning and global coordination, the brain-child of London van Van is finally coming to life."

Ichi's apparent indifference to Ni's suggestions infuriated him. He was a major contributor to this project. Ichi couldn't have done it without him but Ichi ignored him, staring at the television as if he hadn't said a word. He didn't even give Ni the satisfaction of patronizing him.

"The Green Tulip is a seventy story, green reflective structure of beauty in architecture, nature, and diversity. Never has there been such a project that has united so many people in love, preservation, and cooperation since the Svalbard Global Seed Vault project."

Ni makes the mistake of grabbing Ichi's upper arm, "Are you listening to me?"

"And the center of all that love and cooperation is the one everyone calls the first green ambassador, London van Van with his partner, Arie Visser."

Driving Ni into submission was as simple as standing up, which Ichi did slowly while making steady, strong eye contact with Ni. The result was predictable. Ni dropped his hand as if dead weight and made a hesitant step backwards. "Yes. That's how we'll do it. The water systems. Covert, hard to detect the origin, and it will get to the source immediately. Well done, Ni." Ni blinked, stunned at the approval. How could Ichi so easily make him feel like he was trying to gain approval from his father? Turning back to the television, "And I also believe we've found our conduit."

The camera now zooms in on a tall blond man with a disarming smile dressed in a brown coat. The crowd goes wild as he waves in response to their accolades. The commentator lilts, "Some say it's time to make van Van a true ambassador for the world."

Sandra Glahn Blog Tour

2007-11-06T14:39:00.000-05:00

I am pleased to be able to host writer and friend, Sandra Glahn, on a Blog Tour for her new novel, Informed Consent.

I'll let Sandi describe the story herself:

Jeremy Cramer, the next Einstein of research, is a medical resident specializing in infectious diseases. While working on a way to revive water submersion victims, he makes surprising discoveries, while also living with massive guilt over incidental infections that occur (which he could have prevented). Even as his marriage teeters, his career continues to skyrocket. Then, with a few twists along the way, he finds everything he has fought for threatened by the most personal, most heart-wrenching, choices of all.

What I find most compelling is how far into the head of the main character, Dr. Jeremy Cramer, the story is written. As the reader you can see how his guilt controls his drive and decisions in a way in which he is completely blind. It's not just a straight forward, spectator telling of the story but also a psychological one. There's a low grade level of grief in which the reader follows Dr. Cramer, yearning for him to be absolved.

In the middle of Sandi's busy book touring schedule, I was able to ask her a few questions about her book and writing.

You have a lot of cultural diversity in your characters. What determines that?
I teach at a campus where more than 30 percent of our students are minorities. My niece and nephew are African American. One of my best friends is from Japan. So diversity is part of the way I think now. It wasn't as much an overt choice to include them as a natural one that reflected my own world.

Have you ever imagined who might play your characters if your book was made into a movie?
I've actually had contacts from a couple of movie producers (I'll believe it when they show me the money), but I don't dare let my imagination go this wild! On second thought, oh why not? We could start with Jeremy played by Sonjay Gupta from CNN and Devin played by Regina King (the wife of Will Smith's character in Enemy of the State).

Loved Regina King in Legally Blond 2!

How do you write your characters? Do you have to somewhat "be" them to write them or do you imagine them as people outside of yourself?
My characters are all conglomerations of characteristics I've noticed in others. There's no one-to-one correlation between a character and someone I know, but each character has something of someone familiar. Of course they also do reflect part of myself in that I can give them some of my desires and pet peeves and certainly my opinions! (I have plenty of those.)

Have you ever heard of National Novel Writing Month where you write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days?
I had not heard of it until you mentioned it. Wow. You go girl! I have never written a novel in less than nine months! More power to ya!

Yea. It's a crazy idea.

Part of the madness is to spill out 50,000 words non-stop and get the bulk of the story down and then go back and edit. How much editing do you do along the way of the writing process? Do you try to keep yourself from pouring over previous chapters?
I think this is key. The first draft is the hardest, and the way to get around writers block is to "turn off" the editor and just get it all down on paper/the screen. Let the creator (rather than the editor) rule before fixing anything if you can, and you'll move much faster. I go through seven or eight drafts before I send a manuscript to the publisher, but the most time-consuming is the first. I write a chapter and then edit it. I wish I could write in bigger blocks than that! Editing is necessary but it can really slow you down!

Yea! My editor just will not stay in his cage.

What was the word and page count for "Informed Consent"?
The story came to 342 pages in print. But I never think in terms of pages when I write, only words. I shoot for about 10K words per chapter. This book came to more than 95,000 words, which was over the count my publisher gave me, but once they read the ending, they let me keep most of the words I had. To make the ending as fast-paced as it is, the reader has to understand a lot of background.

I'm struggling with my story for NaNoWriMO! I haven't written fiction since high school. Any words of encouragement?
Let the creator out and don't let the editor's mind tell it, "That's dumb" or "that's crazy." If you still think it's dumb or crazy in a few days, you can nix what you wrote, but let that editor's mind run free for draft one. You'll probably end up having interesting dreams at night because the creative mind goes into overdrive. To me that's the great fun of writing a novel! You get to speak and worlds appear. Imagine how cool it must be for the Creator to have thought something and spoken it into being and instead of existing only on paper and in the imagination it appeared in solid form! Ex nihilo! You will get a tiny taste of how cool that must have been because you were made in the image of the Almighty. Enjoy yourself!

Thanks Sandi!

More on Sandra Glahn
Her Blog
Her Web Site
Her Fiction
Her Non-fiction

NaNoWriMo: Limpy Start

2007-11-02T13:57:00.000-05:00

This writing stuff is hard!

Our NaNoWriMo writing group meets on Thursdays and Saturdays at Krankies to hammer out 1,667 words of our novel. So far, everyone in our group is doing better than expected. Everyone has meet their daily count... except me!

I am not a natural story teller so I think I'm approaching this more like a technical writer and it's killing my daily output. Above all I want to enjoy this so I'm going to keep plugging away and see if I can discover a new way to write that gives me freedom.

I have discovered that I like writing dialog more than describing settings and surroundings. I will write out the entire conversation (I can see and hear the whole thing in my head), and then go back and interject descriptions of the action and setting. It's working so far for me. Slow, but at least I'm getting words down.

Our friend ValetBoy began work on a new script. I was so tickled when he let me read it. It was really great. He offered to read mine and I could have rolled on the floor laughing. What I'm writing isn't really readable. It's more like someone's regurgitated ramblings. What a mess!

I do have a working title though I don't think it will stick:
The Mad Osakazuki Five of Cal-Tech

NaNoWriMo: Launch Party

2007-10-30T13:27:00.000-05:00

We had our launch party this past weekend and it met all my expectations.

We have a very diverse group. I'm especially thrilled that we have some teens participating. Go Pyrallus!

What I hoped to get most from the group was encouragement. I didn't get cold feet on my wedding day but I've gotten cold feet about writing a novel. There was nothing but positive energy all around! Everybody has a success oriented attitude. Let's do it!

Some of our group are members of the Winston-Salem Writers. We attended their launch Monday night and hope to see some of them at our writing group at Krankies.

I've added some references about writing and stock photography to the right hand margin for my new writing friends. If you have any favorite books or blogs on writing you can share, it would be appreciated.

2007 TV Fall Season Premiers Part 3

2007-10-23T20:26:00.000-05:00

Here's the last of my Season Premier reviews.

Samantha Who * * * *
Monday, 9:30 p.m., EST, ABC
You know, I had this on my "new shows" list to check out but I had decided to blow it off. I have a whole list of shows to watch and I don't really need another one. To kill some time this weekend, though, I popped this on and was so surprised.

Christina Applegate plays Samantha who has amnesia about her life prior to a suspicious car accident that puts her into a coma. She doesn't know her parents, her friends, or her lovers. Apparently she was a very mean person and now she has a chance to change all of that. Applegate is extremely funny as is Jean Smart (Designing Women) who plays her mother. I love to laugh so this goes on my "must see" list.

The Unit * * *
Tuesday, 9:00 p.m., EST, CBS
I don't know of anyone who watches this show but it's great. I was pleasantly surprised that it got renewed. If you've never caught it you should give it a try. The entire cast is superlative and the stories are all about heroes and their wives. It's the best story in the world - white hats win.

Supernatural ???
Thursday, 9:00 p.m. EST, CW
We didn't catch the premier. This is one we watch online and they just got the episodes uploaded (2 weeks into the season). I did catch the first 15 minutes of last nights episode. At least last night, they appear to be more gory and shocking. I hope that's not going to be a theme. Their stories have been good enough without becoming simply gore driven. Of course, I'm not their demographic.

UPDATES
Back to You * * *
Wednesday, 8:00 p.m. EST, FOX
I knocked one star off of my original review. As I feared, each episode is playing mostly on the storyline of the love child of Heaton and Grammer's characters which I find a total bore. There was a scene in the last episode with Ty Burrell who plays roving reporter, Gary Crezyzewski, that was hysterical! The supporting cast may get all the laughs in this series while the equally funny leads get the yawns.

Chuck *
Monday, 8:00 p.m. EST, NBC
This show has taken a nose dive! With so much potential in story they seem only occupied with showing curvaceous secret agents beating up the likes of Adam Baldwin (pl-ease) and appearing at least once per episode in their underwear.

The Big Bang Theory * * * *
Monday, 8:30 p.m. EST, CBS
Holding steady. My money is on this new series! Sweet and funny.

Heroes * * *
Monday, 9:00 p.m. EST, NBC
Heroes has improved from its limp premier but if it doesn't payoff I can say last season was great and leave it at that. Come on! Make me care.

Ugly Betty * * * *
Thursday, 8:00 p.m. EST, ABC
This show is doing a much better job the second time around than Heroes. Lots of drama and every episode leaves my jaw dropped. What fun!

Willa's Flic Pic: Slither * * * ½

2007-10-19T13:07:00.000-05:00

Slither
- James Gunn
- Comedy/Horror, 2006
- R rated
* * * ½

Starla Grant: Baby, what happened to your face?
Grant Grant: It's just a bee sting.

You know I'm a super light-weight when it comes to horror films. My T5 for this time if year is best called Halloween picks, not Horror. I'm not an aficionado. But I'm really excited to add Slither to that list.

Sometimes I think you can tell a good movie when you can go back into IMDB and read the movie quotes and they make you laugh all over again. That's definitely true here. James Gunn, writer, director, and actor, accomplishes that successfully in three areas: cast, script, and special effects.

Gunn wrangled for himself some really funny people. Of course, I'm a huge fan of Nathan Fillion (Captain Tight Pants, Firefly). Gregg Henry's performance is over-the-top hysterical as the town's Mayor. Michael Rooker plays a great sympathetic victim/alien as is Elizabeth Banks as his sweet, tender-hearted southern wife. The entire supporting cast is spot on. The flip side of this coin is the great characterization written by Gunn. Characters who are on screen for only a brief moment are distinguishable (Jenna Fisher, from The Office, as, who else but the receptionist). Fun-ny!

The only experience I had with Gunn's work prior to this was Scooby-Do. Luckily for him, this is a much better showing of his talents as director and writer. We all know you can have a great cast but have an utterly dreadful film because of poor directing or script. Here the talent had great material. With comedy and horror, timing and pace are essential for effect and Gunn accomplishes both for the laughs and the screams he wants. But I think the great work in this script is in its simplicity. There aren't too many subplots or overly complicated details. Simple town, simple people, with a simple alien problem. Kudos to Gunn for not getting bogged down and just making a funny horror movie.

Grant Grant (Rooker) is infected by an alien worm inside a meteorite that crashes in the small town of Weesley. The worm gradually overtakes Grant's body in an effort to produce millions of leech like worms that can infest all the humans on earth. Starla (Banks) is Grant's young, ever faithful wife who eventually has to set out to destroy her husband along with the town sherriff, Bill Hardy (Fillion). Not only do they have to destroy Grant, who is becoming stronger and stronger, but also all the towns people that have been turned into zombies by the worm seeds.

I don't think bad special effects would have ruined this film. It might have turned into a cult classic but, as it is, the effects were noticeably impressive. MyGeek pointed out that they used such massive amounts of the material to create the Grant monster that the national supply was depleted. They had to shut the shoot down for a month so the manufacturer could produce more.

Snap-Shot-City

2007-10-16T16:05:00.000-05:00

MyGeek can find the coolest things on-line. He was telling me about a photography contest on-line that had something to do with the city you lived in. I tucked it in the back of my brain until I could sit down to think about it. A couple of days later I remembered and had him sent me the link the Snap-Shot-City. (He learned about it here.)

By their own definition, S-S-C is:

A worldwide photographic treasure hunt
That brings people together on-the-ground and on-line
It celebrates the cities in which we live
It aims to open eyes to the extraordinary; everyday; everywhere
By challenging people to become artists for a day
To create simultaneous fun for our extended social network all over the world
A good, good time

This is how it worked. We registered as a team on SnapShotCity's web site. At 1:30 on Saturday, September 29, we were able to download the 20 topics for this year's photo shoot. We had from 2:00 - 7:00 p.m. to snap pictures around our town that represented those 20 topics. Then, we raced home and uploaded our pictures to the S-S-C gallery in each category.

Five hours seemed like a long time until we started trying to interpret the topics. We thought several of them were pretty tough:

Oasis
Man's best friend
Youth of today
What's new pussycat?
Pattern language
Odd one out
Wrong side of the tracks
Out of sight. Out of mind.
Luck of the draw
Splat!
Silhouette
Too little, too late...
Step by step
Up, up and away!
Against all odds
Time travel
Hang in there
Tourist
Wearable art
The writing's on the wall

It took a little longer than we thought to upload our pics. We had about 200 to sort through, upload, map and label. The ones I'm showing here are nice shots but they didn't make our cut onto the S-S-C gallery. It looks like there were about 99 teams participating. Typically you can find our team pictures, JohnRhon, on either the first or second page of each topic.

MyGeek and I are adventurous and have lots of ideas but we aren't very daring. We don't like approaching strangers and asking to take their pictures so our operation was more covert. It meant we had to be more creative with our ideas... and careful. For instance, for "Youth of today" I wanted to take a picture of the massive soccer fields full of kids. But these days, people are suspicious of strangers driving by and snapping pictures of their children. There were also several youth car washes going on. In my opinion, you need to ask the youth if it's o.k. to take their picture. Driving slowly through the parking lot, leaning out the window taking pictures of youth washing cars just doesn't look right. But we both were too intimidated to walk up and talk to strangers so you'll notice the majority of our pictures don't have people in them!
It was a hot day and actually pretty stressful rushing around town trying to get all the pictures taken in the given five hours. It would be great next year to have a couple more people on our team to come up with ideas for the topics. At the end of the day, though, it was a real blast! Just like with SPS, seeing the pictures from the other teams is the big payoff. There are going to be winning shots in each category. The Judges are working through all those right now. You'll be one of the first to know if we have a winning pic. Until then, check out the gallery.

Willa's Flic Pic: The Lookout * * ½

2007-10-12T14:54:00.000-05:00

The Lookout
- Scott Frank
- Drama/Thriller, 2007
- R
- Trailer

* * ½

Lewis: Hello?
Chris Prat: Are you OK?
Lewis: I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?
Chris Prat: Because the lights are on. They're up there, aren't they?
Lewis: Just get out of here.

Of the five reviews I read about this movie, all but one gave it top praises. Not only that, they could say nothing bad about it. I tend to side with the one review that had some negative things to say but this still is a film worth seeing.

The story is not particularly unique although it's well told. Or maybe it was just that so much of the plot was predictable. Was it suppose to be that way? I don't know. If so then what's the enjoyment for the viewer? Of course, everyone knows the Cinderella story but they still love to hear it.

Although the four-out-of-five reviews credited everything to the story written by Scott Frank, I think the real beauty of this film is in the acting and filming. This was Frank's first time directing. If a director is to be given any credit to what the actor's produce, then maybe this is where Frank deserves credit.

Everyone puts in a fabulous performance. I wish I could mention everyone by name (I'm sure they wish I would, too.) Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Chris Pratt, a popular High School hockey superstar who is disabled after a terrible car accident. He rooms with Lewis, played by the wonderful Jeff Daniels, who is blind and helping Pratt to adjust. The story deals with the really low point of Pratt's recovery. He is depressed and seemingly hitting a wall on all fronts to make something out of the remnants of his life. He is racked with guilt about the accident, totally misunderstood by his family, and a lonely young adult male. This is the wrong time for the wrong kind of person to enter his life but that's exactly what happens.

With the caliber of performances Frank was getting out of his actors, I had the constant feeling that I wasn't getting enough story. Don't get me wrong. I don't like everything spelled out. I like the reality of actions speaking louder than words. But there was the feeling of things missing from Pratt's story. One female character completely disappears from the story in a confusing scene. There are undertones of a rivalry between Pratt and a player from a rival school team that was too vague. It was a tease. I liked the idea but the story never pursued it.

The filming is quite beautiful (in an artistic sense, not "scenic".) Most of the scenes are cramped and confined. which gives you the sense of how the walls are closing in on Pratt with little room to maneuver. It really works hand-in-hand with telling the story.

The Lookout isn't typical Hollywood fare and will make a descent Friday night rental.

2007 TV Fall Season Premiers Part 2

2007-10-10T16:05:00.000-05:00

An update on watching TV online. Some of the networks haven't got their act together yet.

CWTV.com
I don't know why I continue interacting with this dreadful web site except that I'm committed to two of their shows: Supernatural and Beauty and The Geek. Although they have a link to "Full Episodes" and you download their player, we can't get the episodes to play on either a PC or Mac. Come on, guys. Get it together!

ABC.com
Top honors gows to ABC. Whatever technology they're using, they're doing it right. You have to download their player but, from the home page, you're about three clicks from a complete menu of all their selections. Same as last year. And, if they stick with last year's plan, the entire season will be available until the beginning of next season. Sweet!

Everyone else's site falls somewhere in-between...
CBS.com
Only two clicks to get to full episodes and you don't have to download a player. But if you click CSI from the "Full Episodes" menu on the home page, you won't get last weeks episode. I had to click "All Shows" in the blue bar above the episode list and then click "Full Episodes" under that to get a current list of episodes. They had the same problem last year with keeping their menus up to date. Their shows also play in chapters and it's common to watch three out of four chapters and then just quit playing.

NBC.com
This site comes in second to ABC's site. The issue here is getting use to the navigation. You can get to full episodes from the home page or from each show's page. You don't have to download a player to watch and you can select to watch an episode by chapter like on DVDs. (I can't give it second place because I'm still burned over them canceling Studio 60.)

Fox.com
Fox has it goin' on too but their site is more sluggish than the others. I don't remember if I had to download a player or not. If so, it must have been seamless. You do get a choice of three screen sizes where most sites only give you two.

We also caught some more premiers this week.

Bionic Woman *
Wednesday, 900 p.m. EST, NBC
This wasn't on my list but MyGeek mentioned it. First of all, I know there are thousands of struggling actors trying to break into the business. I know some of them. Out of thousands you would think they could find ones who can act in fill high profile roles like this. Michelle Ryan is terribly flat. There's no warmth or personality to her character. The plot was ridiculous and full of holes. It seemed like the writer's rushed the story. Why? Because everyone knows it?

"You know. There's this average girl, Jaime Sommers, blah, blah, blah. She get's into this accident and almost dies, blah, blah, blah. Then she wakes up and she's bionic, blah, blah, blah."

Cinderella is an old story and everyone knows it but we love the telling of it. Tell the story.

Pushing Daisies * * * *
Wednesday, 8:00 p.m. EST, ABC
This show turned out to be as playful as it looked. Everything is bigger than life, the colors are vibrant, and it's narrated like a story book. It has the feel of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (either version!). My high hopes paid off.

Life * * * ½
Wednesday, 10:00 p.m. EST, NBC
This has turned out to be the most pleasant surprise of the bunch. I'll have to do some more research about the show because I have some observations about the character, Charlie Crews, that I want to share in more detail. In the mean time, check it.

Big Shots
Thursday, 10:00 p.m., EST, ABC
This is ABC's male answer to Desperate Housewives. I heard it described recently as the male version of Sex and the City. This couldn't be farther from the truth. I never saw Sex and the City but I got the impression the female characters in it were empowered. The male characters in Big Shots, admit themselves, that they are more like women then men. They are ridiculous and emasculated. Why would a man or a woman want to watch something like that? I didn't have any expectations. It's a good thing.

More quick fall season reviews to come...

NaNoWriMo Part 2: Why?

2007-10-08T19:38:00.000-05:00

I've never had a yearning to be a writer. English was not my best subject and creative writing has always been a great struggle. I've done all kinds of technical writing and I'm really good at it. I can teach and explain things in great detail. But too much tedium in storytelling will kill it. So why would I want to be a part of National Novel Writing Month?

1. Doing something creative is better than doing nothing creative.
2. To learn something new about myself and creativity.
3. Why not!? There's nothing to lose.

Since I released my right brain in 1999, I've constantly struggled with giving it freedom and license. My left brain demands structure and knowledge, organization and a plan. My right brain wants to walk along the beach at sunset and paint on the walls. But Lefty always find excuses for not running away on a sunny day or making a mess. It doesn't take much of this before Righty screams, "I've got to break free." So why not write a novel.

A real foe to my creative pursuits is time. Time to yank out paints, take classes and spend hours in the studio experimenting. To battle this, I've tried to find small creative outlets so that I'm doing something, even if it's not canvas and paint. Blogs are one of those small outlets I can do just about anywhere, anytime. SoulPerSuit also helps because of its mini art projects created on playing cards. This week I folded a couple of pieces of origami. It took less than 30 minutes. Righty was so happy.

So maybe I'll learn something about storytelling. Maybe I'll respect writers more. I hope to find a NaNoWriMo group to meet with regularly during the challenge and maybe I'll just use my enthusiasm and focus to encourage others on to their own dream of writing a novel. That's time well spent.

NaNoWriMo Park 1: About

2007-10-01T11:51:00.000-05:00

In November I'm going to take part in National Novel Writing Month. From their web site:

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

If you want to participate, registration begins October 1 and novel writing begins November 1. On November 30, everyone who reaches the goal of 50,000 words is a winner! Come on! Just think about it.

For all the 411 on NaNoWriMo, check out No Plot? No Problem! written by one of the original members, Chris Baty. The web site has tons of features. Once you've registered you can track your word count, get advice in the forums and find NaNoWriMo groups in your area.

Sounds insane?

Sounds reckless?

So why do it?

Why not!?

2007 TV Fall Season Premiers Part 1

2007-09-25T13:50:00.000-05:00

Monday through Friday we watch television for only one hour a day, during dinner time. We don't tape shows anymore and we don't pay for TiVo. The Network web sites (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and CW) provide full episodes of our favorite shows so we can watch them on-line when it is convenient for us. We love this system!

Of course, cable networks don't do this. We'd ditch cable all together if we could. What a racket.

The fall season is off to an o.k. start. Lots of new stuff out there. I thought I'd go ahead and give a quick review of the ones I've seen so far.

Back to You * * * *
Wednesday, 8:00 p.m. EST, FOX
How can you go wrong with Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton? You can't. The writers from Frasier are contributors so this show will run a long time. I don't like the storyline of the love child but let's see what they do with it.

Beauty and the Geek * * *
Tuesday, 8:00 p.m. EST, CW
This is the only reality show left on my list. (My favorite reality shows, Project Runway and Top Chef, are on Bravo, a cable network. The cable company turned off that channel at the beginning of the summer. Blah, blah, blah. Long story. Yes, I'm bitter.) BatG has a lot of potential. But I think they've made a big mistake by brining in a single female geek paired with a male beauty to compete along side 9 geek males and 9 female beauties. On camera and, most likely, behind the scenes, the geek girl is going to come out on the short end of this.

Chuck * * *
Monday, 8:00 p.m. EST, NBC
This show has a lot of interesting things going for it. The hero is another geek. He's very witty and likable. There are some interesting short film segments that remind me of YouTube videos. And it has Adam Baldwin who played Jayne in Firefly.

The Big Bang Theory * * * *
Monday, 8:30 p.m. EST, CBS
I laughed out loud a lot during this. I have high hopes in this being a fun sitcom. It's a very geeky season.

Heroes * *
Monday, 9:00 p.m. EST, NBC
I was a huge fan of Heroes last season. As ValetBoy said, "I was a wee bit saddened by the lack of zip and umphhh." I sure hope it picks up.

Journeyman
Monday, 10:00 p.m. EST, NBC
I only watched about 15 minutes of this but I was generally unimpressed and bored. I also don't think it was cast very well. The lead seems more like a tough guy in a spy story instead of a family guy/reporter. The actress playing his wife is even worse. She'd be better cast on a law drama. It only works if you like the characters.

Netflix & Doctor Who

2007-08-31T15:51:00.001-05:00

Sorry, movie lovers. We're still going through the 2005 season of Doctor Who and enjoying it a lot. We highly recommend it.

We started getting our movies through Netflix in October 2005. We got sick and tired of getting DVDs from Blockbuster that wouldn't play when we got them home. The mail service is very convenient. Last week we received the very first disc from Netflix that wouldn't play on our DVD player. That's one bad disc out of about 190. Blockbusters odds were close to 40/60.

It was also very easy to replace the bad DVD. I got online, answered two multiple choice questions and my DVD replacement was on its way. How easy is that!?

If you're still hedging about doing a mail service, I hope this pushes you over the edge!

SHAPE icons

2007-08-21T15:28:00.000-05:00

Last week I worked on the logo and icons for a Community Life series for Hillsdale Baptist Church. The purpose of the series is to discuss and discover how your own personal SHAPE fits into the church's core values. SHAPE stands for Spiritual Gifts, Heart, Ability, Personality, and Experience.

I thought the puzzle piece looked like a little person. I divided it into 5 color sections, each representing a part of the little person's SHAPE.

I also developed icons for each aspect of SHAPE. Each week a different aspect will be highlighted so they needed an icon to represent that week. I also designed the PowerPoint slides.

I'm really pleased with the overall look of the whole design. I thought is was utilitarian and generic. The icons needed to be as broad and recognizable as possible. The whole look needed to work across all demographics. I liked the really heavy borders and rounded corners.

Doctor Who * * * *

2007-08-17T15:24:00.000-05:00

No new movies again this week. Instead we've been renting the 2005 season of Doctor Who. Some of our friends, who I don't see as Sci-fi buffs, are fans of the show so I had to check it out.

I tend to be a purest. I always read a book series starting with book one, if I start reading a new blog I start with the first entry and I prefer seeing any season of a TV show from it's first episode. Doctor Who has been on since 1963 so I looked for CDs of the very first episode. 1979 was as far back as I could get. The note on Netflix said, "Die-hard fans consider "The City of Death" one of the series' greatest episodes...". Well, 1979 it is, then. Should be good.

Quite frankly, I hated it. How dull. I must be missing something and I believe it's the first 13 years. My friends can't be fans of something like this. Better go to 2005.

Much better! Great characters! Before I was even half way into it I liked the actors and characters so much I wanted to know all about them. If you don't have story, you've got to have characters. If you don't have characters or story, you better have some damn good f/x.

MyGeek is enjoying Doctor Who so we'll be watching this for the next couple of weeks and see how it holds up.

Tattoo Art

2007-08-10T10:19:00.001-05:00

On our adventure to the beach, Fluffy and I decided to temporarily commemorate the occasion with henna tattoos. Of course, the artist is not allowed to use true henna anymore because someone had an allergic reaction.

Fluffy and I know it would be impossible to choose a real tattoo because it took us forever to pick these little guys. I thought I might thrill MyGeek by having his name (temporarily) inked across my bicep but that was out of my budget. Once I spied this SPS inspired ditty, I went with it. It is still visible on the outside of my right ankle. I should have had it done in a more prominent location (like my forehead). No one has even noticed it.

The process was so quick and simple, I actually looked online about getting into the temporary tattoo business myself but quickly decided I didn't need any more art projects. These people are making a killing at this, though. Let me tell ya.

Closed Door - SPS Card

2007-08-08T13:59:00.000-05:00

This isn't great art but it's my first SPS card for the study of Esther, just to let you know what I've been working on.

The first week we looked at hiding who we really are. Is there a part of your past that you're ashamed of? For me that's a big YES. I've always felt like I'm going to spend the rest of my life living down and undoing the reputation I developed and honed the first half of my life. I wore a lapel pin expressed my motto: "beyond bitch". I wore it proudly and became that motto (I am nothing if not focused and an achiever).

But, this chorus by Geoff Bullock expresses how I should think about that past:

I will never be the same again
I can never return, I've closed the door
I will walk the path, I'll run the race
And I will never be the same again.

The door is closed and I need to quit opening it. I need to see myself as God sees me.

Art notes: I cut a door with an x-acto knife in a giant playing card (4" x 6.5") and then traced it with a black sharpie marker. The "CLOSED" sign is a picture off the internet. The "beyond bitch" button was done in prismacolor pencils on drawing paper glued to the back of the playing card. I laid down a heavy layer of black and then scratched the words out. Didn't work the way I wanted but it's o.k.

IF: Illuminated Initial

2007-08-06T11:40:00.000-05:00

Click image to see a larger view.

It's been about two weeks since I've seen any movies. I went to the beach one weekend (ahhh!) and then I've been working on this illuminated initial.

Over on SoulPerSuit, we are taking an artistic look at the story of Esther. Each week we delve into the history of the Jews around 486-465 BC and the roles the characters played, and then create a collage of personal impression about the story. SPS calls this "Playing Your Hand."

At the beginning of each week, SPS has something called "Shuffle the Deck" which is a silly and fun creative exercise to get you kick-started creatively, sort like warm up exercises. One aspect of the story of Esther is about identity so the Shuffle last week was to make an illuminated initial about yourself. I had so much fun with this exercise. Can you tell?

The main trunk of the "R" is a tree that represents my love for books and movies.

The scarf around the trunk represents my love of computers.

The cross in the closed loop of the "R" shows God sealed at my center.

The orb represents MyGeek and our union.

The rose represents art and beauty. Here's where things got a little self-therapeutic. The rose is crying because I am letting the Critic take it away from me. The Critic is not bound to me; his chain is broken but I won't banish him out of the reach of the rose.

This drawing was suppose to serve two purposes. Last weeks Illustration Friday (IF) word was "moon". I would have loved to post this but I didn't get it done on time.

The Art of Can

2007-08-02T15:33:00.000-05:00

What do you do with your Red Bull cans?

Since 1997, Red Bull has held The Art of Can competition. Anyone can enter. Using tons of creativity, create a piece of art using Red Bull cans. The results are amazing. This year's competitors are getting ready to go on exhibit. Check out past entries on The Art of Can web site.

Willa's Flic Pic: Hotel Rwanda * * ½

2007-07-27T11:45:00.000-05:00

Hotel Rwanda
- Terry George
- Drama, 2004
- PG-13
- Trailer
* * ½

Paul Rusesabagina: All day long I work to please this officer, that diplomat, some tourist to store up favors so if there is a time when we need help I have powerful people I can call upon.

I've been fascinated with the intricate history of Africa for a while. Of particular interest is the genocide that took place in Rwanda in 1994. How and why did this happen? This story can be told from many view points and the one of Paul Rusesabagina is one that must be included.

In taking on this project, the film makers were faced with the difficult job of telling a single story at a climatic moment in time of an intensely complex history. The real story here is how the dedicated diplomat and professional Rusesabagina, manager of the four-star Hôtel des Mille Collines in Kigali and Hutu man married to a Tutsi, is affected by the chaos that ensues in the 90 some-odd days of the genocide. Rusesabagina has interaction with practically every faction involved in this conflict but the viewer gets confused. Who are they and what are their intentions. It's understandable. There's the Hutu army, Interahmwe, UN, French Army, United States, Hutu businessmen, RPF, Red Cross, Sabena... you get the picture.

More than half-way through the film I was beginning to wonder if there was going to be a climax to the story or if it was simply a telling of a sequence of events, more like a documentary. Eventually there was a climax and I felt like I was in a story again. This pace made the film feel a little choppy.

A generalized conclusion is made about the reason no one (pick from the list of factions) intervened. And when I say "the reason" I mean they gave one reason. I don't know if this is from Hollywood or consultants on the project but this situation is no less complex than the genocide itself and it's irresponsible to have treated it otherwise.

Like I said, it's a difficult story to tell - in more ways than one.

Don Cheadle is brilliant. I'm impressed with him in everything I've seen (Out of Sight, Ocean's Eleven, ER). He's just a joy to watch. More Cheadle, please.

I've only gotten started reading about this horrible event but if you're interested, I recommend the following:

The Bone Woman by forensic anthropologist Cleo Koff

Machete Season by French reporter Jean Hartzfeld

Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwanda Holocaust by survivor Immaculee Ilibagiza

DroolontheFrog Logo: Part II

2007-07-24T13:10:00.000-05:00

Last month My Geek and I worked on his new web site. I didn't do much, actually. He coded the whole thing but I finished the frog logo for the site and exported it to a web site gif. I also suggested some color schemes based on his preferences. I think it's a great looking site. It'll grow as his business grows but I think it has a great core design. Check it out.

Willa's Flic Pic: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix * * * ½

2007-07-20T14:37:00.000-05:00

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

- David Yates
- Fantasy, 2007
- PG-13
- Trailer

* * * ½

Bellatrix Lestrange: Neville Longbottom is it?... How's Mum and Dad?
Neville Longbottom: Better now they're about to be avenged!

Thus far, this is my least favorite of the all the HP books. Fifteen-year old Harry isn't someone I want to be in the room with. He is whiny, argumentative, short-tempered and irritable. And the whole thing with the Ministry taking over Hogwarts, students being tortured, ... It all made me wonder why the wizarding world is so smug regarding muggles.

But in the end, I had a better appreciation for Rowling's character development. Most fifteen-year old, adolescent boys are intolerable without having had to fight for their life on at least two occasions, being orphaned, isolated from friends, cruely treated by adoptive parents and generally hated or loved for a reputation that was thrust upon him. All in all, he would tend to be a testy character by this time. I appreciate her being true to Harry's development.

The Ministry business was still hogwash.

The film in turn did a good job handling the building anxiety and seriousness of the return of Voldemort and the maturing of Harry. Things are getting darker and more dangerous. This means more demands on the crews' acting abilities. More emotional, more physical and I think they are doing a good job. I like seeing the darker and more intense scooby gang.

I was pleased to see that some of the settings were more complex and realistic. The main characters are not isolated in scenes when it makes sense to have hubub around. This was most notable in the house common room. There was a great feel to that scene.

The battles are getting more intense and dramatic now that the adults are involved. This was much more appealing to My Geek. And the special effects continue to rise to the occasion. I am never disappointed.

This film series is doing a great job and continues to put out quality work. We're not talking LotRings, but fantasy fans can't be disappointed.

Banana-Strawberry Fruit Smoothie

2007-07-17T12:59:00.000-05:00

I won't be posting very many recipes. It's not that I don't cook. I just don't have time to do much from scratch anymore. The reason I thought I'd post this was to put a little nod toward the of art of Taste. This is a popular second-breakfast (take on our way out the door) for us.

1/2 banana
1/2 c. strawberries, capped and cored
1/4 c. plain yogart
1/2 c. orange juice
2 TBL honey
2-4 ice cubes

Optional ingredients: any other fruit of your choice. We add 1/4 c. of pineapple.

Blend all ingredients until very smooth. Serve immediately.

Hints & Tricks

I like my smoothies thick and icy. To help with this, freeze all your fruit ahead of time.

In a zip-lock bag, freeze all the ingredients (except for the ice) for one smoothie. When you're ready to go, dump the whole bag in the blender, add ice and blend.

Leave the peal on bananas. Before you put them in the freezer, cut off the ends, cut the banana in half and then cut one or two slits down the peal. This will make it easier to peal after being frozen and they'll keep longer.

Buy some disposible cups, lids and straws at your big box warehouse stores or restaurant supply stores. You can carry these easily anywhere, they fit in you vehicles cup holder and there's no clean-up.

These will keep in the freezer or even the frig for as much as an hour. My Geek will mix mine right after breakfast (yes, I'm spoiled) and stick it in the frig. Then I shower and get dressed for work. I grab it on the way out and it is still great after I get to work.

Willa's Flic Pic: Pan's Labyrinth * * * * *

2007-07-13T15:15:00.000-05:00

Pan's Labyrinth
- Guillermo del Toro
- Drama/Fantasy, 2006
- Spanish
- R
- Trailer

* * * * *

Ofelia: Hello. I am Princess Moanna, and I am not afraid of you.

When we popped the DVD in for this film, we selected to see the director's introduction. With an ironic laugh, del Toro said that he hoped we enjoyed the movie that almost killed him in the making. We knew were about the see an intense film made by an intense, dedicated guy.

Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del fauno) is a Spanish film that was in limited release in the US. It's the story of how a young girl, Ofelia, deals with being thrust into the final violent frays of the Spanish civil war in 1944. She is an avid reader and her fairy-tale world is more familiar to her than the setting she's been forced into by the adults in her life. Her father is dead and her mother, Carmen, is pregnant by a vicious captain of the Spanish army. Very late in her term and at great risk to her life, the captain has Carmen moved to his location in the mountains where he is battling rebels. Everyone there is in service to the captain and, with her mother bed ridden, Ofelia learns very quickly she is completely alone.

For a film that is seen as a "fairy tale", it is very violent and many wonder why. In an interview conducted by Brian Tallerico with UnderGroundOnline, de Toro said of the violence:

What I would say to these people is, “If the movie works for you and you get into it, you should go back to being a kid and experience the fear and the wonder as intensely as you do when you’re a kid.” Violence and fantasy have to be dialed up to cause that in an adult. Now, the violence makes you appreciate the beauty and the beauty makes you vulnerable to the violence. It’s not a particularly genteel mix. It’s a very aggressive movie.

I struggled with giving this film my highest rating but I didn't know why. So I ask my qualifying question: What's wrong with the film? Acting, directing, filming, screenplay, costume, music, editing, f/x - anything? I came up with nothing. The only thing that was giving me pause was the fact that it is a tough movie to watch, in all aspects. Innocence faces injustice, life value is determined by net gain, the weak have to face evil alone because those who should be there are either blind or cowardly.

Pan's Labyrinth is brilliant in its story and visuals. If you're a writer, I encourage you to watch it as a story teller. If you're an artist, I encourage to critique it as a canvas. It has its own beauty and I think you'll see it.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix * * * ½

2007-07-13T15:04:00.000-05:00

I'll write a full review of the new HP movie next week. Until then, I can highly recommend a trip to the theatre to see it (which I don't do lightly). The special effects are worth it and so are the battle scenes. Everything is ramped up a notch. This all helps and director David Yates makes my least favorite HP book so far very enjoyable.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: I have my tickets!

2007-07-09T16:01:00.000-05:00

We'll see how David Yates does directing the latest Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Midnight showings begin July 10. I would love to do a midnight show but, I have a job. So MyGeek bought us tickets for the 7:00 p.m. show on Wednesday.

Yates is also slotted to direct Half-Blood Prince. I think it's great that they change directors so frequently. I don't know if it's on purpose but it sure is keeping the franchise fresh.

I have things very well timed. After seeing Phoenix this week, I'll re-read Half-Blood Prince before I receive my birthday copy of Deathly Hallows on the 21st, the 7th and final Harry Potter book. Everyone will probably finish their books before I do so don't tell me what happens!

3•1•6 Journal party!

2007-07-06T13:33:00.000-05:00

I've gotten loads of inquiries about where I've been for the past three weeks. You're all very sweet to ask. And, without any new reviews, I know that I've left some of you in movie rental limbo. (Actually, no one has inquired but claiming so makes me feel better.)

We've been busy over at SoulperSuit with all the excitement over the first issue of the 3•1•6 Journal. I'd encourage you to visit there over the next three weeks because we're going to be giving away some goodies in celebration. This week it's a couple of books. All you have to do is post a comment on Sandi's post to be eligible.

DroolontheFrog Logo design

2007-06-19T14:42:00.000-05:00

My Geek is taking the DroolontheFrog title for his new computer business. In the works is a web site featuring some software he's written and a technical blog. Of course, he needs an identity, which is one of my favorite things to do.

We didn't talk a lot about what he wanted it to look like. He mentioned using Willa in the design. I was willing to do it but it just seemed too home spun. The design would really have to be smart. My instant vision was of a frog in mid leap rendered in just green pixels. It looked great in my head but I couldn't get it to work out. The pixels were too scarce to convey the image of the frog I wanted.

I wanted the image to be simple, clean, smart and modern. Nothing cartoonish but not dry, boring or too formal. He wants to be taken seriously by big companies but approachable by private clients also. With the added pressure of a deadline, I opted for a flat, one-color rendering of the frog in my head. It has some nice geometrics to play with. I know My Geek had some of his own ideas so I thought I would be making several revisions but he loved it. He wanted very few changes.

I was also really pleased. The process was a blast and I just felt like I was in my element. Now I'm working the logo for use on the web and golf shirts.

Willa's Flic Pic: Next * * ½

2007-06-15T12:45:00.000-05:00

Next
- Lee Tamahori
- Action/Sci-Fi, 2007
- PG-13
- Trailer

* * ½

Cris Johnson: I've seen every possible ending. None of them are good for you.

Overall, I believe the reviews for this film were pretty bad. All I know is that I had a good time watching it and since I was just going out for some mindless fun with my friends, this film worked for me.

Nicholas Cage, one of my favorite actors, plays Cris Johnson, aka Frank Cadillac the magician. In the 24/7 action and neon lights of Las Vegas he disappears, which is exactly what he wants because Johnson has a very attention getting ability of being able to see into the future. He can only see two minutes into his own future but it's still a skill that can be capitalized on by all the wrong people. Naturally, the Russians and the US government.

The US government knows that a Russian terrorist organization is going to detonate a nuclear bomb in the area but they have not idea where. FBI agent Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore) has caught on to the true abilities of Johnson and believes that he can tell them where the terrorists are going to act.

I find it very interesting that Johnson's ability is so limited. Although he exploits it in his own everyday life, he doesn't try to develop it for greater aspirations like world domination. He pretty much just wants to forget about it and blend in with his surroundings.

That 25-year-old Jessica Biel is 43-year-old Cage's leading lady is disturbing. Biel is the current hot item in Hollywood but we all know it's not for her acting abilities. The role simply called for a muse, a beautiful woman to inspire an uninspired man. There are a lot of hot 40-somethings out there who could have done this.

Even Julianne Moore, who played the bitchy, off-balance Federal agent would have been better. Her beauty is surreal in The End of the Affair and The Hours.

Moore is a great actress so I don't know what happened in her role as the agent. It could have been because she didn't have good direction or any context for the character, I don't know. She was playing a Fox Mulder-like character but it was just all over the place - smart then explosive, thoughtful then unconscionable. Weird.

My Geek made the best observation about the bad reviews. It is incredibly difficult to get a movie that messes with time past the critics. Since time travel and seeing into the future do not exist, it's easy for backseat critics to find plot holes or inconsistencies. A writer who spends too much time dealing with the plausible science of time could in turn lose an engaging story. There was enough story and enough action here to put Next on my list of Shameless Picks.

Illustration Friday: Suit

2007-06-14T15:07:00.000-05:00

I came across the Illustration Friday web site last week while reading the blog of illustrator, Von R. Glitschka. This is what they are all about:

Illustration Friday is a weekly creative outlet/participatory art exhibit for illustrators and artists of all skill levels. It was designed to challenge participants creatively.

Illustration Friday is a weekly illustration challenge. A topic is posted every Friday and then participants have all week to come up with their own interpretation.

My entry this week is the SoulPerSuit logo. Playing cards are the basis for the art of SPS. I also collect playing cards so when I saw the topic "Suit" that's what I thought of.

I love the look of old wood carvings and etchings, especially in illustrated manuscripts. I wanted the logo to have that look and feel. It's actually a 2.25" square piece of carved rubber (NASCO Safety-Kut) imprinted using regular pigment ink (Brilliance by Tsukineko, I think).

3•1•6 Journal coming June 29, 2007

2007-06-13T15:09:00.000-05:00

Well, it's finally here. The first issue of the 3•1•6 Journal will be published June 29. SoulPerSuit will be featured in this premier issue and the team is really excited. If you order your copy before June 17 you get a discount on the cover price. In celebration we'll be doing some cool giveaways over at the SouldPerSuit blog.

2007-06-12T14:21:00.000-05:00

Wow! I had no idea it had been so long since I'd posted. Mostly that's a good thing.

We had a fabulous vacation in Florida and a well needed rest. Above is my little watercolor sketch. I like to get up early and sit on my sister's back porch and sketch the view. There were some beautiful flowers back there I didn't get to sketch. I hope my photos turn out. Watercolor is not my forte but I practice.

My SoulPerSuit team is getting ready for the first publication of 3•1•6 Journal on June 29. We have an article featured there and are mentioned on the cover. Very exciting! As a result, we are trying to get the web site updated, schedule some prize giveaways on the blog and start a study on Esther.

I am watching movies and reading a lot I just haven't had time to review any of them. I hope you're not at a loss for something to rent, although I would say the pickings are slim. Most of the movies in my list right now are over a year old.

I also have several little art projects in the works. A couple of logos, my design for Art Unleashed and I've just discovered Illustration Friday. I'll talk more about that in the future.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

2007-06-01T15:19:00.000-05:00

For those of you who are fans of Studio 60, you know all too well that it was cancelled. The whole gang here (My Geek, Fluffy and ValetBoy) all loved the show and are thoroughly p-oed it was cancelled.

But if you're still wondering what happens in the rest of the season, you're in luck. NBC has decided to air the remaining episodes on Thursday nights (10E/9C) since they are all already in the can. It started Thursday, May 24 but you can always catch them online by clicking here. (Unfortunately, the first half of the season is no longer online so put it on your Netflix list.)

Vacation 2007

2007-06-01T14:51:00.000-05:00

Since we were on vacation last week, I don't have a new movie to review for you.

We did go to the theatre and see 300... again. There still may be time for you to see this on the big screen which I recommend. It is very violent but if you can handle Braveheart, you can do this.

We also watched Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring on DVD. I would love a chance to sit and watch all three films (The Two Towers and Return of the King) back to back.

I have For Your Consideration, The Last Sin Eater, and Pan's Labyrinth on the shelf. I should get to one of those next week.

AU Deadline: Aggghhhh!

2007-05-31T14:41:00.000-05:00

The deadline for Art Unleashed design submissions is tomorrow (June 1, 2007)!

Aggghhhhh!!!

And I've been on vacation for a week in Florida.
It didn't do me any good to have early notice! Guess I'll be burning the oil tonight.

Movie Watch 2007

2007-05-22T14:24:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd put a quick post out here about movies I'm looking forward to being released.

Day Watch
7/1/2007
Fantasy/Foreign
My Geek first heard about this two-part Russian-made vampire series. Night Watch was a visual feast, if a little choppy.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
7/13/2007
Adventure
Without any shame, I am a true fan of J.K. Rawling. My Geek pre-ordered me Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows being released 7/21/2007. The film already has a slot on IMDB for 2010. How tired (and rich) are Radcliffe and the gang going to be when this is finally over.

Live Free, Die Hard
7/27/2007
Action
It's Bruce Willis in an action movie. That's the only reason you need.

Ratatouille
7/29/07
Animation
I saw this trailer on a recent Neflix rental. I just thought it was funny, a rat who lives in Paris and is a food connoisseur.

Penelope
08/17/07
Fantasy
I saw this trailer a while back. The cast looks great (Christina Ricci, Reese Witherspoon, Catherine O'Hara) and it reminds me of Big Fish or the Harry Potter series.

Martian Child
10/26/07
Drama
It's the first promising John Cusack movie in a while. 1408 looks good but I'm just not a horror fan.

Willa's Flic Pic: Disturbia * * *

2007-05-18T14:09:00.000-05:00

Disturbia
- D. J. Caruso
- Drama/Thriller, 2007
* * *

Ronnie: It reeks in here!
Kale: What's it smell like?
Ronnie: The corps of a rotting hottie.

It's unmistakable that this is a remake of the famous Hitchcock film, Rear Window, and it does an honorable job. With an excellent cast, set, filming and script, this is an all around successful thriller.

The make or break element in remaking this classic was in casting the lead, originally played by Jimmy Stewart. The new script calls for a teenager rather than an adult. Lucky for them, there was Shia LaBeouf, the main reason I wanted to see this film.

We first saw LeBeouf in Project Greenlight about the making of The Battle of Shaker Heights. You may know him from the fabulous film, Holes. He reminds me of a young John Cusack.

In Hitchcock's version, Stewart plays L.B. Jefferies, a freelance photographer who lives alone in an apartment. LaBeouf's character, Kale, is an angry teenager who was at the wheel in the violent car crash that killed his father. The energies of the characters, and actors, are entirely different but they both work. Look for LaBeouf in the new Indiana Jones movie, a great coup for him.

David Morse, another favorite of mine, plays the bad guy in this movie. Morse plays a lot of supporting roles but is a powerful actor and should play lead. I loved his character in Hack in 2002, another brilliant TV show cancelled prematurely.

If you can't see this one in a completely crowded theatre, wait and rent it for a late night movie night with friends.

Book Recommendations

2007-05-08T13:00:00.000-05:00

I did some reviews of books that I didn't particularly care for (1, 2, 3, and 4). Let me pass on some really good books I'd recommend. Some are old. Some are new.

Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
- Erik Larson
Vintage, February 10, 2004
Novel
I've always had a fascination with true crime stories. Currently I'm reading In Cold Blood (which I picked up as a result of watching Capote). What Larson does in this novel to me is just amazing. Not only does he give a detailed account of the inside story on the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, he interweaves this with the parallel event of the serial killer H.H. Holmes, who built himself a death hotel near the fair knowing he could pray on tourists. I thought I'd be bored with the accounts of the fair but, far from it! Extensive research, great writing and an engaging story.

Fahrenheit 451
- Ray Bradbury
Del Rey; Reissue edition, August 12, 1987
Fiction
This is the first Bradbury book I've read. It's like the first time I read Jane Austen. I can't get enough. At the local used book store I bought several more well known Bradbury titles. First published in 1953, it's is eerie how relevant and looming this picture of the future still is. A rudimental description of the story would say it's about censorship. The 50th anniversary edition I read included a very interesting interview with Bradbury in the back. Fahrenheit 451 itself has been subjected to censorship. Smart, efficient writing style.

Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality and Spirituality
- Rob Bell
Zondervan, March 2007
Non-Fiction
This is one of the clearest explanations of the beauty of yourself and a sexual and spiritual being that I've ever read. I love the way that Rob Bell looks at the world and the Word like a kid hanging upside down on the monkey bars - new perspective = fresh insights. I highly recommend it for your kids. They'll get it.

Shakespeare Movies

2007-05-04T17:22:00.000-05:00

During my summer of teen angst, I checked out the complete works of Shakespeare. It was a fabulous book with the left and right margins filled with explanations on many of the phrases. During my family's summer vacation, I would wonder off by myself carrying my complete works of Shakespeare. The only other thing I was interested in was sun bathing.

I didn't get a chance to watch a film this week so I thought, in memory of summer and Shakespeare, I would recommend my favorite films based on Shakespeare's writings.

Ten Things I Hate About You, 1999

This is a modern adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew. It stars a young Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles and one of my favorite actors, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Unlike other teen flics with too much sex and scatological humor, this is heart warming and lovable. You like all the characters and you want more than anything in the world for Kat to thaw. There's a good payoff in the end and fun is had by all.

Romeo + Juliet, 1996

You already know what a huge fan I am of Baz Luhrmann. In his version of Romeo and Juliet, he attempts what seems like an unlikely combination. He sets the story in a modern Verona Beach, with guns and pimped cars but keeps the Shakespearean dialog. If you already love the story, get a fresh energetic view of it through Luhrmann's colorful and textured lens.

Much Ado About Nothing, 1993

This adaptation of Shakespeare's comedy of twisting plot lines and outrageous characters is directed, written and acted in by Kenneth Branagh. Much of the fun of this film is in the amazing all star cast: Emma Thompson, Denzel Washington, Richard Briers, Keanu Reeves, Michael Keaton, Imelda Staunton, and Kate Berkinsale. Keaton, in particular, is hilarious. Consider watching this film on movie night with friends. It's great crowd pleasing fun and, besides, who wouldn't want to see Keanu Reeves do Shakespeare.

Hamlet, 1990

This was the first time I completely understood Shakespeare and I know it was the result of Mel Gibson's acting and Franco Zeffirelli's adaptation. Gibson's Hamlet is passionate, physical and intoxicating, which is the kind of characters Gibson plays. There is never a boring moment when he's on the screen.

The Taming of the Shrew, 1967

I rented this film because I hadn't read The Taming of the Shrew and I had yet to see a movie with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton together. Taylor and Burton's chemistry is obvious. This is Zeffirelli's earliest success in adapting Shakespeare to film and the most well known. I choose it as my classic.

Shakespeare in Love doesn't really count in this category because it's a fictional story about Shakespeare writing Romeo & Juliet, it's not actually one of his plays.

I saw Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (1996) and was totally bored. It was the Kenneth Branagh show and, although Hamlet is melodramatic, Branagh's interpretation is too self-important. I didn't like Hamlet in this film and I didn't care what happened to him.

I haven't seen Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948). I hope to one day.

Movie Review Index

2007-05-01T14:58:00.000-05:00

In a single post I have accumulated a list of all the movies I've ***** rated ***** since June 1, 2006. You can find a quick link to it in the right hand margin under "Movie Reviews". I'll keep this current each week with the movies I see and rate.

In addition to links to the reviews, there will also be links to IMDB so you can find out more about the movie and a link to a trailer, if available.

Let me know if any of the links don't work or if there is any other information you would like to have access to.

Willa's Flic Pic: The Prestige * * * ½

2007-04-27T12:52:00.000-05:00

The Prestige
- Christopher Nolan
- Drama/Thriller, 2006
- PG-13
- Trailers

* * * ½

Alfred Borden: The secret impresses no one. The trick you use it for is everything.

Last week when I discussed Thr3e, I said, "A film can play slight of hand along the way to advance the story but I shouldn't be able to see the ace up your sleeve while you're doing it." When the subject is magic, you're dealing with this head on. The Prestige handles it so well, that when I watched it a second time, I had an entirely different reaction than I did with Thr3e.

The Prestige is about two enormous, competing egos. Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) and Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) are magicians who started out studying and working together. But when Angier's wife dies on stage during a trick, he blames Borden and they part ways very bitter. From here it's a tit-for-tat as each tries to ruin the other's career in one-upmanship and dangerous sabotage.

When I watched Thr3e the second time through, I was hit by all the implausibilities. "That's ridiculous" and "that wouldn't happen" crossed my mind several times. But with The Prestige, it was more "oh, wow, they got me on that one" and "oh, I see now." It was very well crafted. While showing magic, it was performing magic on the viewer at the same time and doing it well. I never completely figured it out and neither did My Geek, which is saying something.

The story is pretty intriguing but I have to say that I didn't like either magician at all. In that sense, I was much more empathetic toward Thr3e's Kevin Parsons. Borden and Angier take tremendous risks but they involve other's without full disclosure. Had Borden and Angier's unwitting friends and family known, they would have at least had a choice. Instead, they are casualties in a mere battle of egos. But isn't that always the case with brilliant minds willing to risk anything to do the impossible? Look at the tragic lives of our greatest poets, artists and scientists.

I've loved Christian Bale in everything I've seen him in (Equilibrium, The Machinist, Batman Begins). He's a smart, dedicated actor and it's art to watch his strength on screen. Angier goes a long way in seperating Jackman from Wolverine, which he needs. (I haven't seen The Fountain but I'm anxious to.) And could we have more David Bowie, please! He should do like Christopher Walken and make a cameo in every film. He's always interesting and so diverse - a master craftsman.

As My Geek said, "I am so over Scarlett Johansson." Anyone could have played Olivia and probably given it more than a pouty face. But then, again, we are still recovering from The Black Dahlia. Rebeccah Hall did a much more interesting job as Sarah, the only utterly sympathetic adult character in the entire film.

It's understandable that the director/writer/producer, Christopher Nolan, could pull off something complicated like this film when you see his track record: Momento, Insomnia, and Batman Begins. If Nolan has a film coming out, you should take notice.

Art Unleashed 2008!

2007-04-24T12:16:00.000-05:00

It's back!

Art Unleashed was so successful in 2006 that the Forsyth Humane Society of North Carolina has decided to do it again.

This blog began as a journal of my participation in the original AU 2006. My intention then was to write about three things. First, to keep everybody up to date on how I was progressing with painting my dog. Next, to keep up some excitement about the project during three months of silence while the artists franticly painted their forms. And, finally, to write about everything I learned about painting a fiberglass 3D form.

Last time, I found out about AU only eight days before the artist submission deadline! I was so excited about participating, though, that I worked constantly to get my design finished and submitted, quite literally, in the last hour. It was a wonderful experience so I was thrilled to hear they were doing it again.

Now that I'm on their mailing list, I got early notice that the deadline for artist design submissions is June 1, 2007. And wouldn't you know, my mind is a complete blank. Was it just serendipitous last time? I don't typically work better under pressure; I'm a wreck, actually. So I'm struggling. I will be infinitely sad if I can't participate again.

Stay tuned.

Willa's Flic Pic: Thr3e * *

2007-04-20T08:41:00.000-05:00

Thr3e
- Robby Henson
- Drama/Thriller, 2006
- PG-13
- Trailer
DVD Release April 24, 2007
-

* *

Jennifer Peters: When was the last time you left this house?
Uncle Eugene Parson: Why would I leave the house?

While at the library last year browsing the New Releases shelf, I ran across a book with Frank Peretti's name on it called House. I snatched it up. It had been several years since I had read any Peretti so I was pleased to run across it. Then I noticed it was co-authored with Ted Dekker. I had no idea who Dekker was but I was pleased anyway. I watched Thr3e for the first time a couple of weeks ago and recognized Dekker’s fingerprint immediately.

Thr3e is a descent thriller. And because it’s a thriller I have to be careful about what I discuss here so I don’t reveal anything.

For some reason, the RK serial killer is after Kevin Parsons (Marc Blucas), a struggling seminary student. Jennifer Peters (Justine Waddell), a criminal psychologist, has thrown herself into the case. Because of her writings, RK had targeted her earlier, resulting in her brother’s death. Personally and professionally she’s intent on stopping RK but he seems to always be three steps ahead of her.

The issue I have with this film is believability. And it becomes even more unbelievable when you watch it a second time. A film can play slight of hand along the way to advance the story but I shouldn't be able to see the ace up your sleeve while you're doing it. Without giving anything away, there is a character whose actions and whereabouts are just impossible. Don't get me wrong. The premise is intriguing but the context in which the character is set is way too tight. The story simply can't hold up to it.

The character is puzzling but not blatant like some other far-fetched things in the film - like how a seminary student winds up living in a top floor loft apartment and a garden shed having a sub basement ten times its size.

The director and crew did a great job with the look and feel of this film. Like Children of Men, it uses texture to build mood, scene and character. It was great that the "3" theme was not heavy-handed. In fact, it could have been used more. I loved the shots looking into the three big windows of Kevin's apartment. Costuming was also great.

I was pleased to see Marc Blucas in the lead. The last I saw of him was his appearances in seasons 4, 5, and 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He does a great job as Kevin and is amazing in the climatic showdown.

Justine Waddell was a problem in this film. She has a great face. I love her brooding, smoky appearance. But she came off highly choreographed and posed and all of her lines were delivered with a breathy seductiveness that didn't fit her character. I understand from Dekker's blog that they had trouble getting this role cast up until the last minute.

If you are a Ted Dekker fan, you will probably enjoy this film. If you are a thriller fan, you'll probably be disappointed.

Fox Faith Movies

2007-04-18T16:16:00.000-05:00

My friend Sandi is a member of the Fox Faith Movies Press Room. As a member, Sandi gets early releases of films before they are released either in the theatre or on DVD.

From their web site, here is what Fox Faith Movies is about:

FoxFaith Movies is the Christian moviegoer’s online guide to current and upcoming faith-based theatrical releases from FoxFaith. FoxFaith is a new branded distribution label from Twentieth Century Fox, created to house and distribute its growing portfolio of morally-driven, family-friendly programming. To be part of Fox Faith, a movie has to have overt Christian Content or be derived from the work of a Christian author.

Since I write movie reviews here every week, Sandi wrote her contact at FFM and got me in the Press Room. In the future, if I happen to be reviewing a FFM, I will include the above logo in the review so that you'll know it comes from them.

You might be scratching your head at this point. The movies I review are not considered family friendly and, as I said from the beginning, this is not the site to go to if you are looking for recommendations in that area. I like thrillers, action, and drama and everything I have reviewed has been R rated. But this was a great opportunity to hook up with the review community so I took it.

I don't know if my reviews will be helpful to them. I hold movies to a high standard and don't expect any less from the family friendly genre.

Jupiter Images Contest

2007-04-17T11:56:00.001-05:00

DEADLINE: June 20, 2007

For those of you who are story tellers, Jupiter Images is having a "Life is Tough" contest.

Jupiter Images is an on-line stock photography company - they sell high quality photographs for your graphic design needs.

They're giving away three 2007 Volkswagen Eos convertibles for the best "Life is Tough" story. It's a promotion of their product and company. Life may be tough but doing your job doesn't have to be if you use Jupiter Images.

There's no charge to enter but you do have to register. Go here for instructions on how to enter.

They also have weekly winners so the sooner you get in the better. Go here to see the winners so far.

Even if you decide not to enter the contest, go out to read the stories that are entered. They're very clever.

Willa's Flic Pic: Stranger Than Fiction * * * ½

2007-04-13T14:32:00.000-05:00

Stranger Than Fiction
on DVD
Trailer
Marc Forster
Comedy/Drama, 2006
* * * ½

Dr. Jules Hilbert: The thing to determine conclusively is whether you are in a comedy or a tragedy. Have you met anyone who simply might loathe the very core of you?
Harold Crick: I'm an IRS agent. Everyone hates me.
Dr. Jules Hilbert: Well, that sounds like a comedy!

This is one of those movies that's incredibly difficult to explain. It's not complicated just familiar story told from an upside down point of view. I don't want to give anything away but I want you to be excited about seeing it. So here goes.

Harold Crick is an IRS agent who starts hearing a voice narrating his life. He's the only one that can hear it. He pursues typical mental health means to explain the phenomenon but makes no progress in getting rid of the voice, much less in being understood as anything but a psychopath. Then he hears the narrator predict his "imminent death" and Harold has only one option left - he enlists the aid of a literature professor.

I love it when someone finds a unique way to tell a familiar story. In this case, Zach Helm (writer) deals with the question: What would you do if you knew when, where and how you were going to die? It seems easy. Don't get out of bed that day! But Helm turns this on its ear. Harold makes his choice and, in that moment, the film is asking you - What would you do?

But every character in the film has a choice to make - to take a risk or to change their priorities - either for the betterment of themselves, those around them or the world. We're all connected and our choices do not function in a vacuum. Will you try something new, seize the day, pursue love, risk getting hurt, give hard advice or face a fear?

I have a friend who has an aversion to Will Ferrell movies. Understood. But like Jim Carrey (Man on the Moon, The Majestic, Eternal Sunshine), Ferrell has great breadth. He adds only the amount of humor necessary for Harold with the needed charm of a man waking up to life for the first time. Harold is noble, sweet, generous and thoughtful. You really grow to like Harold and hope for a happy ending to his story.

Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman also have great characters and do a brilliant job as the author and literature professor. The characters are so engaging, I want more stories about them when the film is over. Queen Latifah plays a writer's assistant. My Geek thought the character was unnecessary but I thought she served a great purpose.

Marc Forster and his crew do a great job in creating the look and feel for this film. The scenes were set with lots of white and neutral angular spaces. It reminded me of pages in a book.

Quickie Book Review 4

2007-04-03T12:59:00.000-05:00

A Million Little Pieces - James Frey

Reality TV heralds the promotion of posers and mediocrity. American Idol is the best example. Young people belt out tunes based on little to no experience or training outside of what they mimic in the latest fabricated pop star. But there are brief moments when a singer, musician, chef, or designer exhibits almost other worldly abilities by comparison. My Geek and I say, "they own it." They know their craft so well they play with it, taking it beyond what it has been.

I think Frey owns writing. I haven't read anything else of his but, in this novel, he plays with story telling. It's beyond simply crafting words, characters and plot. For example, he abuses punctuation and capitalization so effectively it's additive. I love the creativity in it.

As a modern day memoir, A Million Little Pieces is engaging and cohesive. It's about Frey's last chance. With an unbelievable lifetime of alcohol and drug abuse, Frey is at the point where he is going to die if he doesn't clean up. This chronicles the time he spent in rehab - for the last time.

When I read it, the controversy had already come out that parts of this non-fiction piece were not accurate. For most of the story, I didn't care. From what I understand, the details about an arrest and time served is greatly exaggerated. But this doesn't affect the story and is minor in light of other elaborate situations like getting extensive dental work without anesthesia and becoming friends with an influential figure in organized crime. And I'm o.k. if these are also exaggerated. Most autobiographies are perception anyway.

But when key events of the story may be fabricated to promote a specific idea or agenda, it's not o.k. It's obvious Frey has no respect for God or AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) . I don't have a problem with that. But I do have a problem if he has to lie about the events to prove his points about God and AA. Is it true that a priest tried to molest him? And does that undo God or just the priest? In the end, instead of validating that AA is a crutch and God a power trip, he completely invalidates himself and anything he has to say on the subject. As Dr. Martha Watson once wrote on one of my algebra test papers, "For Shame."

Willa's Flic Pic: The Notebook *

2007-03-29T15:53:00.000-05:00

The Notebook
Nick Cassavetes
Romance, 2004
*

I typically don't review movies that I consider a waste of time. It's not that this movie is the worst one I've seen in a while, it was just such a disappointment. IMDB has user rating at 8 out of 10. Don't believe the hype.

It was my birthday week celebration and I decided I wanted to see a chic flic. This is not my favorite genre of films but, since it was ladies choice, what the hay. I remember "hearing" good things about this film. Mostly from women, I think. I thought that was a good sign. James Garner is always great to watch so I thought I was up for at least some sappy fun.

WRONG!

We were into the film less than ten mintes and I wanted to turn it off. Boring and tedious come to mind. I think the only reason I'm giving this film even one star is for the actors. They were all good and well cast, but pretty much everything else was wrong. The costumes, the script, the editting... If you want concrete reasons not to rent this or if you want to defend the film, then write to me because this is not as much a review as a warning.

Quickie Book Review 3

2007-03-27T12:56:00.000-05:00

Eaters of the Dead - Michael Crichton

"According to Crichton's afterword, this book was written in answer to the assertion by an English professor friend of his that there was no way to teach Beowulf and make it interesting."

I checked this book out on recommendation by Bruce Bethke but I've been wanting to read it ever since I saw the movie, The 13th Warrior.

This movie is wonderful. If you've never seen it, it's a must. And it's much better than the book but Crichton deserves kudos in a couple of areas. First, I think he brilliantly adapted the story of Beowulf into something that's interesting and exciting. I think all students should read the two together. Second, I like the way he developed the character of Ahmed, an exiled Arab courtier and basically the narrator of the Beowulf story. You can follow his arrogant conviction in the beginning to brotherly respect in the end. He grows as a man and as a human.

Crichton wrote the book as if it were an ancient memoir written by Ahmed. This is an interesting idea but I don't think it adds to the affect of the book. If it did, I would not have noticed how halting the story was. All the footnotes were interesting but I felt like I was doing research and couldn't keep a rhythm to the story. The movie made Crichton's work powerful and beautiful.

Willa's Flic Pic: Little Miss Sunshine * * * *

2007-03-23T17:23:00.000-05:00

Little Miss Sunshine
Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris
Comedy/Drama, 2006
* * * *

Richard: There are two kinds of people in this world, winners and losers.

When I was young I entered a few beauty pageants. My mom entered me in a beauty contest for redheads when I was five or six. I didn't place because I was auburn, not carrot-top. As a teen, I desperately wanted to get into pageants. I only did three because it was time consuming, neurotic and EXPENSIVE. Thus ended my short pageant career. Lucky me.

In Little Miss Sunshine, 7-year old Olive entered a pageant when she visited her aunt one summer in California. She didn't win but she placed first and was bitten by the pageant bug. Now she works on her talent with her indulging grandpa and watches video of Miss America pageants.

Olive's family is dysfunctional like all families. Name an issue and they are dealing with it: teenage rebellion, senior rebellion, divorce, suicide, drug abuse, bankruptcy, homosexuality, pornography. In the middle of all this, the family decides to support Olive by taking a sudden road trip from Albuquerque to California because the winner of Little Miss Sunshine can't defend her title. And we all know how well families get along on a long road trip in a broken down car!

I don't know if I can put my finger on exactly why I liked this movie so much. The more I think about it, the more thrilled I am about it. It has a fantastic cast. They expertly handle each delicate moment between darkness and levity. We recently watched Click with Adam Sandler and had a hard time figuring out whether to laugh or cry. He always looked like he was doing his bit even when he found out his father was dead. In Little Miss Sunshine Steve Carell, known for his dry wit and serious comedic delivery on The Office, shows he has more than one face. As does the fantastic Toni Collette (Muriel's Wedding, Emma, The Sixth Sense and About A Boy). Not to mention Alan Arkin and, my favorite, Greg Kinnear (As Good As It Gets, Stuck on You, The Matador).

As for the story, each member of the family struggles alone to achieve a perceived ideal. One by one their dreams are shattered. I guess it's just heart-warming to watch as they each realize they can have new dreams and a better chance at accomplishing them together.

Quickie Book Review 2

2007-03-21T12:52:00.000-05:00

The Devil Wears Prada - by Lauren Weisberger

The love and fascination with this book has to do with two things: the rumor that it is based on a real person (Vogue editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour) and the romance of high fashion. Although it is great to fantasize about how much slave labor you'd be willing to do to receive a free pair of Jimmy Choo's, without a story and likable characters, you can't make a novel out of it.

There was no point at which I liked the whiny and immature lead character, Andrea. I'm sure at some point I was suppose to like her, either before, during or after her servitude to the job "a million girls would kill for". Although Andrea talked a lot about what she was feeling and wanting, about the job and her relationships, it really didn't add to the development of her as a character as much to set up the plot.

I got only slight enjoyment out of disliking the devil, Miranda. Most of the time I was just appalled at how silly and unlikely all of this was. There's something basic going wrong if I'm half way through the book and I'm wondering, "When is this going to end?" This is about the same time at which I did figure out the ending and realized how far I was going to have to go to get there.

The Movie was a slight improvement over the book. They changed several things. I didn't like that they made Christian a bad guy, that Andrea slept with him or why she ended up going to Paris instead of Emily. But Meryl Streep as Miranda and Stanley Tucci as Nigel each have a brilliantly written monologue that appears no where in the book. If I had the choice between the book and the movie, I'd pick the movie.

"That's all."

Willa's Flic Pic: The Matador * * * ½

2007-03-16T14:10:00.000-05:00

The Matador
Richard Shepherd, 2005
Dark Comedy
* * * ½

Julian Noble: An assassin without confidence is a horrible thing to behold. It's like a relief pitcher who fumbles the ball.
Danny Wright: Please tell me you know you mixed two sports in a metaphor.

Pierce Brosnan playing a smarmy hitman made this film very intriguing. I almost wouldn't have seen it if I had't of heard a decent review of it from our local movie reviewer, Mark Berger. A girlfriend had told me she "hated" it so I took it off my list. Mark Berger put it back on.

Julian Noble (Brosnan) is a very skilled, highly accomplished executioner for hire. He has all the benefits of a man with unlimited wealth and skewed ethics. Without boundaries or ties, he lives in a reality of utter decadence. But recently he is coming to realize the negatives of being completely alone.

Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear) is your average joe battling a life of hard knocks. His only son died and he's out of work and running out of options. For him and his marriage, a lot is riding on his shoulders.

Julian and Danny meet in Mexico City. Danny is there to pitch a new business venture to potential investors. His job, marriage and future rides on their decision. Julian has spent the day unsuccessfully trying to connect with people in his distant, distant past that might care that it's his birthday. Suddenly on this day, food, wine and women cannot allay this profound lonliness. Naturally, Julian and Danny meet in the hotel bar where many go to contemplate or forget their life.

I love the way these two men and their worlds are juxtaposed. Julian's absurd lifestyle is amusing until he meets Danny. Paired with the realities of a monogamous, married man who has lost his son, Julian is inept and repulsive. Next to Julian, Danny is naive and cowardly.

These are two men whose worlds will never mesh. But they cross at points each is familiar and sympathetic to. They help each other out, within their diametrically opposed realities, in a way that men who are noble and right can.

Quickie Book Review 1

2007-03-13T07:21:00.000-05:00

Some of the books I listed back on Books Instead of Movies were really great. I'll save a post later for those. Others I don't want to spend a lot of time on so I'll post some quickie reviews.

The Da Vinci Code - This is really old news. As fiction and brain food, it was intellectually insulting. The characters are one-dimensional and inconsistent because they're secondary to the author's agenda and tedious sermonizing. There's nothing more derailing in fiction than preaching from the front row. I quit reading "The Lost World" when I hit an entire chapter, devoid of characters from the story, discussing the idiocy of Creation. If you can't convey your agenda smoothly in the story without preaching, write non-fiction. Others who have fallen into this trap are Orson Scott Card's Xenocide and the Left Behind series.

The movie had a stellar cast who did the best job they could with the material. There were moments in the movie that were supposed to be serious but came off awkward and comical which, I believe, encapsulates the book.

Books Instead of Movies

2007-02-23T14:44:00.000-05:00

Forgive me readers. It's been three weeks since my last movie review.

There are two reasons why I haven't posted a movie review in a couple of weeks.

ONE, I haven't seen any good movies. As you can see by the sidebar, Children of Men was the last decent film I saw.

The French Connection really holds up well after 36 years and, according to many critics and myself, has one of the best car chase scenes ever made.

Click reminds me too much of the never-ending AI. It also proves that either Adam Sandler can't act (which I don't thnk is entirely true) or that he is going to have to work harder at finding a dramatic face we haven't previously seen and been expected to laugh at.

The second Pirates of the Caribbean barely holds up to the lowly standards of a sequal. Depp even appears to know how ridiculous his character is and appears to be mocking himself doing Captain Jack Sparrow - completely unlikable this time around.

TWO, I'm in my reading stage. I go through this a couple of times a year when I read voracisouly and see almost no movies. I am in one of those phases and I don't know when it might end. Movies aren't a particular draw for me right now. Even though I don't enjoy it as much, I will probably need to write book reviews for a few weeks to keep from losing you entirely.

The impetous for this was the postings on two writers' blog.

Sandra Glahn queried her readers to find out how many of the NYT top 100 they had read. I'm not overly concerned that I read books the NYT considers great but it did remind me of a couple out there I'm curious about:

The De Vinci Code (Dan Brown)- read
A Million Little Pieces (James Frey)- read
Freakonomics (Levitt & Dubner)- to read
The World is Flat (Thomas Friedman)- to read
The Devil Wears Prada (Weisberger)- read
Cell (Stephen King)- read
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Rawling)- read
In Cold Blood (Capote)- to read
Blue Like Jazz (Donald Miller)- to read
The Devil in the White City (Erik Larson)- read

Then Bruce Bethke gave some recommendations for Christmas giving.

Redwall (Brian Jacques)- read
Eaters of the Dead (Crichton)- read

Others on the stack:

Sex God (Rob Bell)- to read

I'll get some reviews up for some of these in the upcoming posts.

Willa's Flic Pic: Children of Men * * *

2007-02-02T19:12:00.000-05:00

Children of Men
Alfonso Cuarón, 2006
Drama, Sci-Fi
***

TV Reporter: The world was stunned today by the death of Diego Ricardo, the youngest person on the planet, the youngest person on earth was 18 years, 4 months, 20 days, 16 hours, and 8 minutes old.

I attempted to write a description of this film a number of times and my last version has been lost entirely. I'll save time and simply give you IMDB's brief description:

Set in 2027, when no child has been born for 18 years and science is at loss to explain the reason, African and East European societies collapse and their dwindling populations migrate to England and other wealthy nations. In a climate of nationalistic violence, a London peace activist turned bureaucrat Theo Faron, joins forces with his revolutionary ex-wife Julian in order to save mankind by protecting a woman who has mysteriously became pregnant.

I think the main challenge in making this film was to communicate what a world would feel like once it was completely without children. Avoiding overly complicated sub-plots, it describes how a nation, various factions and individual citizens live with and react to this ever-pressing knowledge. I think Children of Men does a fantastic job with this challenge portraying a hopeless, violent and desperate world.

Through color and texture they depict a dirty, unkempt society. There are no real attempts to put up a pretense of joy or happiness with uses of yellow or orange or purple. And the grit and mud and blood are all over you all the time. Given this, it is a beautifully made film the way it intricately paints this inconceivable and pervasive mood of despair.

The film is shot mostly in a documentary style with rustic credits and handheld sequences where blood and dirt actually splatter the lens. All of this pulls the audience in more not just as an observer but also as a participant.

This is not a feel good film but it doesn't leave you depressed. More thankful. It makes you look at life and appreciate what we take for granted everyday – parents and siblings and children. And a future.

Willa's Flic Pic: Strictly Ballroom * * * *

2007-01-26T14:40:00.000-05:00

Strictly Ballroom
Baz Luhrmann, 1992
Comedy, Romance
****

The films in Baz Luhrmann's Red Curtain Trilogy are engaging, melodramatic, fun, intoxicating, and fantastical. They're an adventure and a ride. He transports you to what, by description, are familiar places – an Australian Dance studio, modern day Los Angeles, and the Moulin Rouge in 1899 Paris. But, as energetic as these places are known to be, they are nothing compared to Luhrmann's depiction of them in Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, and Moulin Rouge!.

The Red Curtain requires some basics. One is that the audience knows how it will end when it begins, it is fundamental that the story is extremely thin and extremely simple - that is a lot of labour. Then it is set in a heightened, created world. Then there is a device - the heightened world of Strictly Ballroom, Verona beach. Then there is another device - dance or iambic pentameter or singing, and that's there to keep the audience awake and engaged. The other thing is that this piece was to be a comic tragedy. This is an unusual form, there's been a few goes at it - [like] Dancer in the Dark - but it's not common in Western cinematic form. - Baz Luhrmann

Luhrmann works with sound, fast editing, perspective but, mostly, color. He uses all of these effectively to give the film energy, heightened mood, and bigger-than-life people and settings. Mainly, they are used to create intimacy and interaction with the audience. You sing; you dance; you fall in love. My Geek and I saw Strictly Ballroom when it was released in 1992 in one of the art theaters in Dallas. It not only became "our film" for several years it also influenced us to take a few dance lessons.

In the first film of the trilogy, Strictly Ballroom, Scott is a ballroom dance champion. He comes from a family of ballroom dancers. He is the golden child of the family. Where some families strive for their children to become doctors, Scott is expected to be the next Australian Pan Pacific Latin Dance Champion. But Scott has an unrest brewing inside of him. It's a rebellion to simply learn the same steps his parents learned and their parents before them, and that it's time for new steps. But new steps aren't recognized by the Federation and, not only will prevent Scott from winning the championship, could disqualify him from ever competing again. His dance partner leaves him, his mother is having a breakdown and Scott simply doesn't know what to do.

Enter Fran, a beginning dance student who believes in Scott and his new steps. In an audacious move, she asks Scott if she can be his new partner and go to the Australian Pan Pacific Latin Dance Championship doing their own steps. While he admires Fran's courage, Scott easily caves to the pressure from his family, the dance community and the Federation. Fran is humiliated and rejected after risking so much to come into her own.

This film is so funny and so much fun. It's a modern and unique Cinderella story with a Rocky ending that you'll rewind and play over and over again. Everyone should have a little dance in their lives… and a little Baz Luhrmann.

Coordinating Gift Tags

2007-01-22T20:14:00.000-05:00

Whenever I buy wrapping paper, I love to create matching gift tags. I've made wrapping paper on a couple of occasions, but it takes a lot longer.

The tags I recently made matched my retro style Christmas paper. The colors are really hard to represent online but here they are. There were three coordinating rolls.

The inks I chose to coordinate with these were:
VersaColor Olive
Brilliance Rocket Red
Brilliance Platinum

I cut my tags out of white card stock. The particular kind I buy has little silver flecks in it. The tags are 1 1/2" x 2 3/4". You can get 21 tags from an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet.

Since the shapes in my wrapping paper were mostly symmetrical geometric shapes, I used tracing paper to trace a small, medium and large version of each shape (circle, star, asterisk). I transfered the tracings directly to my rubber by simply laying the tracing paper, graphite side down, on the rubber and burnishing with the opposite end of my x-acto knife.

Before using my carving tools, I first cut a clean line in the rubber at a 45 degree angle (away from the image) all the way around the image. I go back again and cut at a 45 degree angle outside of the first cut (towards the image this time) which results in cutting a "v" shaped valley all around the image. Now I take my carving tools and finish the carving job.

For the white tags, I rubbed the edges with either olive or red ink, leaving the middle of the tag mostly white. Then I stamped a large and small asterisk on each tag (see tags below for colors). After inking the medium sized asterisk, I stamped it first on scrap paper and then stamped the tag (bottom left) to get the faint color. Finally, I stamped a large, medium and small silver circle.

I wanted some solid green and red tags like my paper but I knew I couldn't get colored card stock to match. Instead, I used the inks I had chosen and rubbed the entire tag. My experience is that you will always have better luck matching ink colors than paper colors.

On the green and red star tags, I wanted the large star to be white which meant, before rubbing the entire tag with ink, I needed to put down a resist of some kind. I also wanted the color of the small star in the upper left to be a pretty red or green. If I stamped the red star on a green background or a green star on a red background, I knew the red and green ink would mingle and produce a duller color (see the stars in the bottom left of the tags). So, in addition, I needed to create a resist for the small star so I would have a white spot to stamp into.

Here's how I created the resists.

I wanted the large and small star to be white so I stamped each of these once on a scrap piece of paper.

Since these stamps are relatively small (2" or less), I do not mount them on blocks. That means when I stamp them, I can't see what I'm stamping. I do two things to help position a stamp. First, I trim as much rubber as possible from around the shape so that I can get a relative impression of the shape from the back. Second, if the shape is symmetrical, I will place a mark on the back of the stamp and use this as a guide. Usually, it means I will always use the stamp with the mark at twelve o'clock.

For this resist, I will also mark the image I have just stamped on the scrap paper to indicate what position I stamped, matching the mark on the stamp itself.

Cut out the stamped image. See the marks on the cutout that indicate the position it was stamped.

Cover the back of the cutout image with removable adhesive.

Stick the scrap image on the tag where you want it to remain white.

Repeat for all the resist images.

Now you can carefully rub the entire stamp with either the green or red ink. Remove the resist papers and finish stamping your images. Remember what position you laid down the small resist image in the upper left of the tag. Stamp inside of the white space with the stamp in the same position. This is not an exact process, by any means, but I like the poor registration look it gives.

To finish up, I used a Japanese screw punch to punch small holes in the tag and then threaded them with twine (nothing fancy). Silver would have been nicer but I didn't have it on hand.

I can also use these same stamps to create matching greeting cards, postcards, etc.

Willa's Flic Pic: Brick * * * *

2007-01-19T16:04:00.000-05:00

Brick
2005, Rian Johnson
Drama/Mystery
* * * *

The Brain: Ask any dope rat where their junk sprang and they'll say they scraped it from that, who scored it from this, who bought it off so, and after four or five connections the list always ends with the Pin. But I bet you got every rat in town together and said 'show your hands' if any of them've actually seen the Pin, you'd get a crowd of full pockets.

To stay out of the various drug-linked cliques at his high school, Brendan makes the unpopular choice of being an outcast. Although they are in love, Emily’s aspirations win out over Brendan’s isolation and she breaks-up with him. He loves her very much but he won’t compromise and follow her into what he knows to be a destructive cycle.

Two weeks pass. In that time, Brendan has lost all contact with Emily (Emilie de Ravin, LOST) – until now. She leaves the address for a phone booth in his locker. When they talk, he knows she’s in trouble but she’s not making sense. There are squealing tires and she hangs up. The next time he sees Emily she’s dead. He is consumed with who did it and why.

Brendan is a doomed hero whose love is lost at the beginning of the film. Her death gives him his courage, determination and nobility. You can tell how much he loved Emily because this new attitude is devoid of fear, practically daring someone to kill him. You hope he comes out a winner in the end but, besides the possibility of avenging his love’s death, he is used, beaten and witnesses nothing but the same. This defines the dark hero of this mystery noir.

It took me a while to figure out this was set in a high school. Although the setting and habits of the characters indicated they were in high school, the actors may have been just a little too old to be playing the roles they were in (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Laura Zehetner and Emilie de Ravin were all actually 22 when making the film).

That being said, I really looking forward to seeing Gordon-Levitt come into his own in a heavy drama like this after his exceptional work in 3rd Rock From the Sun.

Brick operates so much to a rhythm it’s lyrical – somewhat Shakespearean. I had trouble understanding the dialog in the first few minutes so I turned on subtitles. The dialog is essential in establishing the age of this group and the circle they run in. It was beautiful simply in its delivery and sound.

In the closing scenes I was smacked with the similarities to film noir like The Maltese Falcon. It didn’t come off as a tribute but an influence or fabulous reinvention. It’s easily a film you could watch over and over again.

This is Johnson’s break out full-length feature. He wrote and directed Brick. I look forward to his next work, The Brothers Bloom, coming sometime in 2008.

Sigh. The Holidays Are Over

2007-01-16T17:04:00.000-05:00

My hiatus was much longer than I had planned. But I'm back on-line with lots to talk about in art and movies. This Friday I will have a review of the movie Brick.

I made out like a bandit in the DVD library this holiday. My Geek contributed the most. I was thrilled to receive Elf and Baz Luhrmann's Red Curtain Triology which are the three movies made by Baz Luhrmann.

Strictly Ballroom This is a colorful spoof on ballroom dancing competitions, full of great music. We loved this movie so much back in 1991 that we took dance lessons.

Romeo + Juliet I love this modern intepretation of this classic. This film charges Shakespeare's words with energy. The first impressive role I saw with DiCaprio.

Moulin Rouge! Luhrmann's explosive energy, color and over-the-top drama peaks in this film. Great editting and music.

My Geek also received a copy of The Graduate as a graduation present from my sister. I received The Da Vinci Code from a co-worker. Very thoughtful. By default we got a copy of Serenity. This was intended to be a gift to one of our bestest friends but ValetBoy already had a copy. We kept it, already owning the Firefly series, and got him How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime.

We didn't watch a lot of movies over the holidays. I have a basic requirement of three holiday films that I must see and I only got to see one of them this year. I wonder if that's why I don't feel like the holidays are over. I missed Scrooged with Bill Murray and Alastair Sim in Scrooge. I enjoyed catching The Santa Clause and The Santa Clause 2, though. I have to make sure to own the other two movies if my holiday is going to be complete next year.

Etiquette Problem

2006-11-29T10:25:00.000-05:00

I don't have time to write Miss Manners so maybe someone out there can help me.

Four years ago I spent one evening a week assisting an art teacher. This went on for almost two years. We weren't super close friends but I respected her work and she was very generous.

It had been almost a year since I heard from her when she sent me an e-mail November 7. She said she is retiring from teaching and having a party on December 2 - could she have my address? I replied to the e-mail, congratulating her and sent my address.

I have not recevied the invitation. What do I do? I don't want her to think I'm snubbing her. At the same time, I'm not going to be disappointed if I don't go.

It's possible she never got my e-mail. I don't know how that would have happened but it could have. I know she has my phone number. If she never recevied a reply to her e-mail, she could have called. I can only assume that she chose not pursue it and that's o.k. with me.

I think calling her might be rude. "Hey, are you having that party this weekend?" What if she decided not to invite me after all? What if she invited someone in my place?

I can't just show up. I don't know what time it is. I don't know where it is and I don't even know if it is still on.

What do you suggest?

Halloween Pics

2006-10-27T10:13:00.000-05:00

As I said when I started adding movie reviews to this site, I am not a horror movie fan. I've read quite a few horror novels but I don't enjoy the movies. That's not to say that I don't have a few, very tame favorites for this time of year.

The Corpse Bride is not actually classified as horror (told you these were tame) but it's fun. The artistic quality alone makes it worth seeing at least once. I really appreicate Tim Burton believing in the craft of stop-motion animation enough to pursue this project. You have to check out the extras on this DVD, especially The Animators.

Tim Burton makes wonderfully imaginative and colorfully artistic films. Beetle Juice and Sleepy Hollow are also good selections.

My Geek said that I couldn't put Shaun of the Dead on my list because it was a comedy. IMDB lists it as a Comedy/Horror. The movie's tag line is "A romantic comedy. With zombies." The gross factor alone qualifies it as a horror for me. Shaun is having a really bad day. His girlfriend dumped him because he has no real ambition and hangs out at the pub all the time. He gets no respect at work or from his family. Then zombies start taking over London! Shaun and his best mate try to rise to the occasion and save their friends and family from these flesh eaters. Funny and gross. See our dilemma?

Tremors is one of those films that didn't get much fan fair on release but has a significant cult following. The best part of this film is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. The characters are small town folk who find themselves breakfast, lunch and dinner for giant underground worms who track vibrations made on the surface. The worms are not complicated or super smart which makes it all the more entertaining to see these simple folk try to out smart them and survive. There are plenty of laughs and scary moments.

Identity is the closest I get on this list to a modern day slasher. It's scary, creepy and gross but the plot line is typical. Several strangers end up stranded together at a roadside motel during a torrential rain storm. One-by-one they are murdered. While trying to figure out what is going on, they discover they have one very strange thing in common. As easily frightened as I get, I was able to make it through this film because it stars John Cusack, one of my favorite actors (and also by watching through the holes in my afghan.)

Nosferatu is the 1922 German black and white vampire classic based on the Dracula story. What I love is the idea that Count Orlok is so evil that death, famine and hoplessness consumes the entire town of Bremen simply from his presence.

There was also a good film in 2000, Shadow of the Vampire, that is a fictional account of the making of Nosferatu . It plays on a rumor that the actor who played Count Orlok was actually a vampire who was promised the leading lady at the end of filming if he would make the movie.

If you're interested in truer Halloween fair, try one of My Geek's selections:
Halloween II, 1981
American Werewolf in London, 1981
Fright Night, 1985
Lost Boys, 1987
Near Dark, 1987
Session 9, 2001

Willa's Flic Pic: The Machinist * * *

2006-10-20T20:06:00.000-05:00

The Machinist
2004, Brad Anderson
Drama/Thriller
* * *

Stevie: Are you okay?
Trevor Reznik: Don't I look okay?
Stevie: If you were any thinner, you wouldn't exist.

For Halloween I thought I would recommend a thriller since I'm not an outright fan of horror movies. The Machinist is like The Sixth Sense. You can't tell too much about it or it will ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen it.

Trevor Reznik (Chrisitan Bale) is a lathe-operator. We enter his story when all the issues in his life are coming to a climax and he appears to be cracking up. Physically, he is emaciated and hasn't slept in a year. Emotionally he's numb, edgy and unpredictable. Mentally, he's hallucinating and loosing large gaps of time.

The mood of the film is dark and dream like even though Trevor never sleeps. Since we're following the story from his point of view, we aren't sure if what we're seeing is real or imagined. He finds post-it notes on his refrigerator on which someone is playing hangman. He's seeing someone at work that no one else ever sees. What does he want and is he the one leaving the post-its? Whoever it is, it appears they know a secret about Trevor that he's terrified of.

The Machinist isn't particularly pleasant to watch. It's eerie, grimy and everyone seems suspicious. The images of Trevor's skeletal body are disturbing. I was trying to figure out how they made Bale look so emaciated. They didn't. He actually lost all of that weight for the role. Kudos to him for such a great level of commitment to his work. It adds immensely to the fascination of this film.

What I like is that the catalyst for Trevor's problems isn't a ghost, demon or psycho. It's suspenseful if a little predictable. It's a dark subject and it's dealt with in a dark style which I admire artistically. Figuring out what is happening, what is real and what isn't is part of the enjoyment.

If you would like a film with more of a Halloween flavor, you might try one of this director's other films, Session 9. My Geek talked me into seeing this film and I give it a four which means that I lost four nights of sleep after seeing it. I get creeped out just thinking about it. It's a very smart film with a great perspective and is well made. I didn't choose to review it because I don't feel qualified to judge horror. My Geek has a somewhat finer tuned eye for this genre and recommends it highly.

Free Stock Photos - Respect Copyright

2006-10-17T14:59:00.000-05:00

I agree with Napolean Dynamite's brother, Kip, "I love technology." The majority of my work, play and volunteer work is done using a computer.

One of the things I need to hunt down frequently are photos. Typically since these are for my own personal use or for a charitable organization, I need to find things that are free. But just because it's on the internet DOES NOT MEAN IT'S FREE.

I am a big respector of copyright so I've done a lot of research to find true, free stock photography. Finding them can be confusing because there's also Royalty-free photography. Very simplistically, there have three levels of obtaining photography:

Rights managed has the tightest restrictions. The purchase agreement is very specific about how many times you can use the photo, what size it can be, etc. Basically, you pay for every instance you use the photo. For example, you can purchase the photo of a girl eating ice cream to use on the cover of your newsletter but you can't turn around and also use it in your logo, on your letterhead and on your web site unless you paid for those uses.

Royalty-free photos must be purchased but there are typically no restrictions on how many times you can use it. This means that you can use the same image in newsletters, brochures, business cards, letterhead, web sites, etc.

Free photos are free of charge but that does not mean they are free of use restrictions. Some don't allow use in mass produced marketing mailers, others restrict you to personal uses only.

No matter which you use, each stock company has their own use policy. Some want credit in your publication. Almost all of them restrict the images from being used in political material or in an offensive way. None of them allow you to resell the images. Be sure to read the fine print. It's tedious but it's your responsibility to respect other's work.

In the right hand margin I have added a list of links to Free photo stock sites. If you have any favorites, PLEASE, send me your links.

Willa's Flic Pic: Man On Fire * * * *

2006-10-13T09:23:00.000-05:00

Man On Fire
2004, Tony Scott
Crime/Drama
* * * *

Creasy: The gunshot holds no fear, say it.
Pita: The gunshot holds no fear.
Creasy: You welcome the sound. In fact it's the sound that sets you free. You are a prisoner on this block until that sound sets you free.

This film got low to average ratings when it was released. I admit that the trailers were unmemorable to me and I didn't give it a second thought. But it has turned out to be one of my favorites and the one that made me a Denzel Washington fan.

John Creasy (Denzel Washington) is burned out. His life has been a career of unspeakable crimes and it is now asking a toll which he currently pays with large quantities of Jack Daniels. He wanders aimlessly into Mexico to hook up with a former partner, Rayburn (Christopher Walken).

Kidnapping has become a growth industry in Mexico and more and more families are buying kidnap insurance and hiring bodyguards. Rayburn thinks Creasy needs something productive to do so he gets him a bodyguard position protecting the nine-year-old daughter, Pita Ramos (Dakota Fanning), of a prominent family. (Taking this job is like asking a brain surgeon to be the elementary school nurse.) Creasy doesn't care about himself much less anyone else, but, despite himself, he becomes friends with Pita. Predictably, Pita is kidnapped and Creasy has a mission that more aptly fits his skills.

I find it interesting that a critiqe of this film is that it's an endless blood bath with a thin underlying plot. The plot does take a couple of fairly predictable twists but they are handled very well. Although this is a very violent movie where lots of people are shot, beaten up, blown up and cut up, it is more of a character study of Creasy and a story of redemption.

Creasy is presented as the worst of the worst – at least in his own estimate. Pita represents complete innocence. As the adults make their choices, she is still under their control. She is a victim of their greed. Her parents control even the activities in which she's allowed to participate. All of Pita's potential mistakes or contributions to society still lay in front of her. Creasy chose death and destruction and he believes that none of that can be undone.

Creasy: Do you think God'll forgive us for what we've done?
Rayburn: No.

While Creasy doesn't believe he can be redeemed he still looks for it. While drinking and holding a gun, contemplating suicide, he also reads scripture. Pita doesn't see him as a lost cause and accepts him unconditionally; all he has to do is accept.

Pita: There are some good things in this world.
Creasy: Oh yeah, like what?
Pita: Like meeting me.

I wonder if part of the problem critics have with this film is the religious undertones. Creasy quotes scripture once and wonders if he can be redeemed. There is a lot of religious symbolism. It's a great issue to contemplate – can you go too far to be redeemed? What is redemption and where does it come from. Although "thou shalt not kill" is not applied by Creasy, I do believe he gets his redemption message from Jesus and applies it the only way he knows how. In the end he becomes a redeemer himself.

This film has all my favorite things. Good action/adventure, a great character, one against many and Christopher Walken (every film should have a little Christopher Walken)

Willa's Flic Pic: Two Days in the Valley * * ½

2006-10-06T10:42:00.000-05:00

Two Days in the Valley
1996, John Herzfeld
Crime/Drama
* * ½

Allan Hopper: You know, I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I was raised in a trailer park. My father abandoned us, and my mother couldn't even afford to send us to college. Now, I may be an asshole, but I've worked hard to become one.

Every morning I listen to 2GuysNamedChris on Rock92. On Fridays they have movie reviews with local critic. The show had interview Jeff Daniels once and they asked the critic his favorite Daniels movie. He mentioned Two Days in the Valley and The Purple Rose of Cairo. Since I like Jeff Daniels I rented and enjoyed both of these. One of my favorites is Blood Work. You might be familiar with him from Terms of Endearment, Arachnophobia and Dumb and Dumber.

Two Days in the Valley integrates several plot lines to tell the sordid story of the interconnecting lives of several people living in LA in a 48-hour period. The film opens with the murder of Becky's ex-husband, Roy, by a cold blooded assassin and his has-been assistant. The murder takes place in Becky's bed – while she's in it! What makes this film interesting to me is that, instead of the crime driving the story, it's the relationships – how they are connected and what effect they have.

What is most notable about this film is the skill at which so many plot lines are integrated without any one character dominating the film. With one exception, each character is played out no more and no less than is needed to depict their 48-hour experience. This kepts the characters interesting and the plot from getting too weighed down with useless details. I cared very much for the Alvin Strayer character, played by Jeff Daniels, a burned out cop ready to snap. His story had an abrupt end that left me wanting more and wondering, if they weren't going any further, why develop him as much as they did.

I also appreciate that the film doesn't take itself too seriously. The subtle dark humor ebbs and flows well with the carnage. It's humor in the everyday things, like a toupee, and the not-so-everyday things, like a catfight.

I had no idea what year the film was made but I guessed it was the late '80s. Turns out, it's only ten years old. I think I would blame this mostly on costuming and hairstyles although the whole mood and feel of the film seems dated. There's no indication that it's suppose to be set at any other time except the present. This is an unusual problem for a movie to have.

This is not a super great film but it is entertaining and very interesting to watch.

Where Am I and the The Black Dahlia

2006-10-05T10:42:00.000-05:00

Sorry it's been such a long hiatus. Things have been crazy around here and I haven't even had time to say, "boo".

Because my social calendar has been busier, I haven't watched very many movies. I've also been spending more time with the TV premier season. (Check the sidebar for my list.) I have caught a couple of movies. One I will review for Friday.

Last weekend we went to see The Black Dahlia. The four of us have very different tastes and opinions on movies so it's a notable occasion when we all agree. The Minx almost feel asleep and Valet Boy was uncharacteristically silent (a sure sign of boredom). I really don't think this warrants a full review but a warning.

Brian De Palma directed the film. He's done films of great story and style like Scarface and The Untouchables. The Black Dahlia can be credited with having style but the story is a chopped up, convoluted mess. You can probably blame Josh Friedman's screenplay since his previous credits, War of the Worlds and Chair Reaction don't bring a lot to the table. I haven't read James Ellroy's novel so I don't know if that's where the mess began or not.

There's an all-star cast but I have to blame their melodrama accompanied by equally melodramatic music to the director. Sometimes the music was so over the top it actually produced titters.

I don't want to spend a lot more time on this. It is one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time. (The worst is probably "The New World".) If I hadn't of been with friends, I would have walked out on it.

Kudzu Winners

2006-09-26T16:17:00.000-05:00

The winners of the Kudzu competition have been posted. I didn't make it but I appreciate your support. There were some nice pieces submitted. Be sure and browse their gallery.

Post Adoption Auction Party - Part 2

2006-09-25T12:10:00.000-05:00

(Go to Part One)

I was anxious to get back over next to SAM. When we got back in the lobby you could tell that the bulk of the crowd had finally arrived. The time they were spending in front of the forms was more attentive. When I got back to SAM, he had been bid on by a couple of different people! The price was $450. Once again I began introducing myself but this time they were introducing themselves as bidders. One was Gummie.

I had actually known about Gummie's interest in SAM before the party. There had been on-line bidding for all the forms about 30 days before the party. I was tickled to see that SAM had actually gotten a bid – from Gummie. As it turns out, Gummie was a volunteer on the Auction Committee and had fallen in love with SAM. Considering her ties, we decided to ask her how some forms ended in silent auction and others in live.

Gummie is fairly new to the area but not new to charitable auctions. The auctioneer that the Humane Society had hired told them that it was impossible to live auction 46 forms in one night. He set the limit. The forms that were chosen for the live auction were random. But Gummie said she had seen a live auction of 200 pieces of art in one night and disagreed with the auctioneer's assessment. I know that there were some artists upset to be "stuck" in the silent auction. But we would soon see why they auctioneer chose a limit.

I was overwhelmed with the idea that people were actually choosing to bid on SAM. That of a room of 46, SAM was one of their choices. There were at least five different bidders for SAM and three that battled it out until the clock struck 8:15. I didn’t see the final price before the clipboards were snatched up but SAM raised the Humane Society around $725.

They wasted no time gathering everyone for the live auction. I so wanted to stay for the entire thing but ValetBoy and Minx had left to get us a table for dinner and my feet were killing me. I had worn these adorable little strappy high heals with jeans. They were actually fine as long as I was walking. Or sitting. But to stand in one place for 2 hours... Yikes!

We couldn't see very well so I can't tell you exactly which forms we saw auctioned. I know we were there for Femme Fatale and Corky. The auctioneer was wonderful. He was entertaining and stirred up a lot of excitement in the audience. He took his time and made sure the audience was engaged. The first forms went for $1250. There were twenty more forms to auction off and the price went up every time. We left when Corky was sold for around $2500. I read in the paper the next day that the Humane Society raised $80,000 and the last form was sold for $7000. Oh, I wish I had been there for that!

This was such a wonderful experience - I would do it again. As we left the lobby, I looked back at SAM and said my last goodbye. I'm very proud of him.

(See newspaper article here.)

Vote Sept 8 - 22

2006-09-22T14:53:00.000-05:00

One of the prizes awarded in the Bank of the Carolinas' Kudzu Art competition is the Community Choice Award. This is determined by online voting so I need your help!

Go here between Friday, September 8 and Friday, September 22 .

Click on "BEGIN VOTING".

You are then taken to a registration page. You must register to vote.

Mine is in the "18 years or older" category (I know some of you will wonder).

You will have to search through the entire gallery of 145 pieces to find mine. Right now, it is in the 24th row in the middle. This may change but I'll try and let you know.

The name of my piece is "Come On In".

Post Adoption Auction Party - Part 1

2006-09-05T20:00:00.000-05:00

Things have been very hectic so I haven't written a movie review or reported on the Art Unleashed Auction. I know you're on pins and needles.

The venue was the main lobby of The Wachovia Center. It was a perfect location. Around 26 of the cats and dogs lined the walls of the main lobby. They were a part of the silent auction that would take place until 8:15. SAM took his party position to the left of the ticket table as you entered the building. Next to him was Swirls the cat and then the Magical Mandala dog.

We were asked to arrive early and stand next to our form so that potential bidders could ask questions. I didn't see any other artists near their forms so I felt a little uncomfortable - conspicuous. So those perusing didn't think I was gawking at them I would introduce myself. "Hi. I'm the artist." Then they were very excited, even if only politely so, and usually had questions.

My nerves were getting the better of me and no one was bidding on SAM. I thought maybe it was weird with me standing right there so My Geek and I decided to check out the food and drinks which were generously donated by several local restaurants. Taking a walk and pacing in front of the food options didn't calm my nerves. Neither did the arrival of my friends (Valet Boy and Minx). It didn't help that the alarms in the area kept going off. Through the outer glass wall you could see additional seating on the balcony. People were trying to go out one of the many exterior doors which set off the alarms. Once triggered, the security guards seemed to be unable to figure out how to get it shut off again. Eventually the approrpiate wiring was yanked out of the wall to a round of applause!

Before leaving the food, I was interviewed briefly by Leigh McMillan who writes a column for the Accent section of the Tuesday edition of the Winston-Salem Journal. Leigh is a friend of the Minx who had told her that I was one of the artists. Minx told me to be prepared. Leigh was very sweet. Check out her article here.

On our way back to the food we passed the live auction area and the 20 remaining dogs and cats. The live auction was set to start at 8:30. One of the burning questions of the night was how did certain forms get chosen for the live auction and why weren't they all in the live auction. We would learn this later when we met Gummie.

Kudzu Art Exhibit

2006-08-31T15:01:00.000-05:00

Today was the deadline for the juried art exhibit I mentioned in a previous post. I dropped it off at the Bank of the Carolinas in Advance during lunch. Getting it done was a whirlwind process but I couldn't have done any of it without My Geek, Sue and Erin.

THE IDEA
I don't take on anything unless I get a clear idea in mind. At first, I was completely blank. Disappointed, I was about to conclude that I just needed to bow out of this one. Then I received my Sept/Oct issue of Somerset Studio. Sachi Komai's shadowboxes of tags gave me the idea I had been grasping for.

One requirement for KudzuArt was that the piece "interpret or reflect life in the Carolinas". There is so much to living in NC! What one thing would I pick to reflect living here? You have the mountains and the beach. There are all kinds of sports, arts, outdoor activities and history. With the tag idea, I could draw little images representing each of these on little leaf shaped tags and put them into a collage. I had my idea.

An odd thing about these ideas I get: typically, I get everything - size, medium, colors, etc. - all at once. The kudzu idea came as a collage and watercolor.

"That's strange. What little experience I've had with watercolors was very frustrating!"

But there it was. I couldn't think of another way to execute the idea in my head.

A BETTER IDEA
After describing my idea to My Geek, he mentioned that it would be cool if each of the leaf tags had a key dangling from it. It was brilliant! I loved it. Elliott Brothers Locksmith on 8th was very kind to give me a bag of fifty keys from their trash bin. It was the weekend. I had all my supplies. It was time to get started. I had Friday evening, all day Saturday and Sunday, and Mon.Tue.&Wed evening. (Yea, I know.)

I was pretty pleased with how the background turned out. The watercoloring required only basic techniques. I practiced on scrap paper before I started on my expensive 23"x30" 300lb. Arches. I made all my leaf tags but, before sketching all the Carolina images on them, I arranged them on the watercolor background to see how I would arrange them with the keys.

It looked so wrong. It was horrible. The keys were weighty and too bright. I didn't know what to do.

HELP FROM FRIENDS
It was Sunday night and the project had come to a screeching halt. My Geek suggested I take pictures and e-mail them to my friends, Sue and Erin, for suggestions. The consensus from them was the it needed more color and the composition was off balance.

I have a weekly phone date with Erin and we brainstormed over the phone for about a hour. In the end, the entire composition had changed and I was starting over. But it all made sense and I really didn't see anyway of saving what I had done so far. I would much prefer to live closer to Erin so that she could just drop by but the time she spent on the phone with me was awesome.

I had already planned on taking 1/2 a day off from work the next day so I could try to finish. (Good thing, since I was now starting over.) I picked up more supplies and dove right in. It was Tuesday and I knew exactly what I had to have done by nightfall: the background image needed to be painted and the shadowbox needed to be sanded and stained. I've been in situations like this before where I didn't time things well and paint and glue were still not dry. This time everything would be set before turning it in.

It was required that the piece be framed and ready to hang. I needed a custom built shadowbox so I had to enlist the assistance of My Geek. If I decide to take on a task with an insane deadline, that's one thing, but I felt so guilty pulling My Geek in on this. He was very encouraging, though, even when sleep deprived. At my 100th apology he said, "You can't make art without a little insanity."

COUNTDOWN
Wednesday morning, before going to work, I stained the frame again and tore the background into a circle. I thought the torn edges turned out great except for the state of NC. I liked the idea of it breaking the circle but, since it didn't break it dramatically it just looked awkward. I also had to tear it from the back to get the effect I wanted (no white edge).

At lunch I came home and glued the background to the backboard of the shadowbox (this had to be in place before I could start the collage that night). I hate spray glue but I needed good, even secure coverage. I used 3M Super 77 Multipurpose. It had to be glued in the right place on the background so when I nailed the frame on, it would be centered.

All that was left was to glue the tags on. This took much longer than I expected but the whole piece depended on these showing movement and dimension. The keys looked great. I ended up going to an antique store and buying two rings full of tarnished keys about the same shape and size. I used a combination of E6000 adhesive (will glue almost anything forever) and Scotch foam mounting tape.

LOSS
Whether from stress or exhaustion, I had a wide range of emotions about the finished product: amateur, crap, craft-fair-ish, bizarre. In these moments of evaulation, my critics have set up camp in my head.

There is a moment, though, after dropping off a work that you've greived over, when you feel loss. It's very strange. It overwhelms you unexpectedly. I didn't think I had an attachment to it but I suddenly felt like something had been taken from me by someone unworthy.

This is an obnoxiously long post. I don't think blog posts should be this long. It defies the nature of blogs. For the most people, this is too much detail, I know. But part of my goal was to document the artistic process. To answer the questions, "How did you come up with this?" or "What made you decide to do that?"

Willa's Flic Pic: Suicide Kings * * * ½

2006-08-25T08:03:00.000-05:00

Suicide Kings
1997, Peter O’Fallen
Drama/Mystery
* * * ½

Charlie Barret: A number of times, the only thing that kept me out of a satin box was that I could size up the other guy maybe half a second quicker than he could me.
Brett Campbell: [laughing] What the f--- are you talking about? You're taped to a chair!

I'm not a fan of mobster movies. I've never seen The Godfather, Scarface or Goodfellas. But I am a big Christopher Walken fan. Suicide Kings is a great Walken film and a different kind of mobster movie.

Mob movies are all about the mobsters, their enemies, one guy in a white hat, and a love triangle. It's a fish bowl and just not very interesting. The conflict in Suicide Kings throws into juxtaposition those in the mob world and those outside of it.

Charlie Barret (Walken) is a former mob boss - very respected and congenial but still not someone you would mess with. Enter five stupid young rich college guys. With illusions of grandeur and more money than sense, they kidnap Barret because they have a problem and he has connections. The sister of one of the kidnappers… has been kidnapped. From Barret they hope to get the $2 million dollar ransom to save her life.

Most of the action with Barret and the kidnappers occurs at the estate of one the kidnappers. Although Barret is tied up, drugged and outnumbered five to one, it doesn't take long to realize who is really in control of the situation as the five begin to break down. They are guppies and they've jumped into a fish bowl full of sharks.

Charlie Barret: You guys didn't think this through too good, did you?

Denis Leary plays Barret's muscle, Lono Veccio, who offers up comic relief and a lot of violence and profanity. He operates purely in the criminal world of the film and gives you just enough insight into mob business to make you feel like you know a little too much. He's trying to rescue Barret and figure out who's behind the kidnapping of the sister.

The film has a couple of decent twists and there's an alternate ending. Be sure and watch this and decide for yourself, which you like best and which one seems more logical. Walken and Leary deliver expected performances. They alone make this worth renting. Walken exhibits power, cunning and intimidation while mostly being tied to a chair. Leary delivers a very satisfying level of action.

Trivia: Christopher Walken is a great cook and trained dancer. In fact, he tries to insert a dance step in every one of his films. If you ever just want to smile, check out Walken in Fat Boy Slim's music video, Weapon of Choice, for which he won the 2001 MTV Video Music Award for choreography.

Adoption Auction Party

2006-08-21T19:38:00.000-05:00

It's been a long time since I've talked about SAM. This weekend is the final event in the Art Unleashed program - the Adoption Auction Party.

All of the forms will be auctioned off with the proceeds going to the Forsyth Humane Society. You can even bid on-line. Details about the party can be found on the Art Unleashed site under Events. You can still attend; admission is $20.

I've been very excited and nervous about the auction, as any artist might be.

I look forward to seeing SAM and the other cats and dogs again. When they're all together at once, it's like a story book come to life - where ruby slippers have magical powers and talking cats and dogs are all the colors of the rainbow.

It's nerve racking because it's where the rubber meets the road. You can't help but think that the results of this auction reflects how others feel about your work. I just pray someone bids on SAM and he goes for more than $5!

"Do I hear five dollars for SAM? Five dollars? Anyone?"

"Anyone?"

The noise in the room is a low hum. The sound is of dozens of distracted conversations while they flip through the program wondering when the next form is on the auction block.

"Two dollars? Do I hear two dollars?"

Yes, I know it's unnecessarily cruel but this is the way artists think. I need to invite my muse to the party instead of my critics.

Jacob Glidewell's blog entry, Your True Muse, got me to thinking about the company I keep (in my head) while I'm making art. I can easily picture my critics because I always invite them along but I had not stopped to think about who my muse is (I'll post about her sometime). This was a very fun exercise and I learned that I like this chick a lot!

So if you come to the auction and no one bids on SAM, you may hear some woman say, "You f------- idiots wouldn't know art if it bit you in the ass!" and then bite someone on the ass. I apologize ahead of time but she's a lot more fun than that pretentious bunch of critics I always bring.

I love you, SAM.

Willa's Flic Pic: Panic * * * *

2006-08-18T20:09:00.000-05:00

Panic
2000, Henry Bromell
Drama
* * * *

Michael: Do you know what destiny is Sammy?
Sammy: No.
Michael: It’s who you really are. It’s who you’re meant to be.

Alex (William H. Macy) is a hit man. It’s the family business. But he doesn’t want to do it anymore. You can tell that it doesn’t fit him. Even in his beautifully tailored assassin-esqe suits, he’s neither cool nor confident. When the movie begins, he’s at the breaking point. The desperation is rising up in his throat and he’s frantic about what to do. He doesn’t know whom he really is or what to do about it.

Alex’s job isn’t the real catalyst in the film. He could have worked for his father in any profession and he would still be a troubled man who’s not in control of his own identity. In scenes with his mother, father and wife, he’s treated like a child. No one talks to him like he’s an adult except his son, Sammy. He has become so emasculated that he responds to almost everything with, “I don’t know” or “I’m sorry”. Their roles are all facades of what they should truly be.

Donald Sutherland plays Alex’s father, Michael. In their scenes together, Alex seems to literally shrink. In the restaurant scenes Alex becomes a little boy in shorts and a t-shirt with his feet dangling from the stool unable to touch the ground or reach the counter. In a flashback scene where Michael forces a 6-year old Alex to kill a squirrel for the first time, you suddenly realize Alex is a victim of child abuse.

The one person who can control Alex’s father is his mother. She refers to Alex’s mail order front business with disgust and the family business with great pride. There is a chilling scene with Sammy and Alex’s parents that reveals who the real cold-blooded killer is in the family.

This movie is built on character development and their relationships and it’s done extremely well. The dialogue is natural and not literal. It’s all the things that are not said out loud that seem to scream the loudest from an outsider’s perspective.

There is very little action in the movie and, in most scenes, the characters are calm and move very little. But the tension and violence are palpable. The ending is very rewarding although you will feel like you want more than what they give you. But think about it. Why is Alex smiling at the end?

Juried Art Exhibit

2006-08-17T08:23:00.000-05:00

I just found out about this but I thought I would pass it along anyway.

Bank of the Carolinas is having a juried art exhibit. The deadline is August 31! It's not much time but, for those of you who like to work under pressure, this might be for you.

Check out the details at kudzuart.com.

Recommendations

2006-08-15T20:00:00.000-05:00

Sorry I missed my movie review last Friday. I'm lucky I don't get paid for this or I'd be out of a job. Please look for a review of Panic this Friday.

Things have gotten really hectic. In the past two weeks school has started, I'm juggling several fires at work and our social calendar has exploded. I may be down to posting only once a week for a while. In the mean time, I know you're at a loss for something to rent so here are some recommendations to tide you over.

Romantic comedy: Grosse Pointe Blank. I know I've mentioned this before so if you still haven't rented it, you should feel guilty.

Foreign: Hero. This is not a kung-fu movie. It is one of the most beautifully artistic films you will probably every see. Guys, you'll like this too. There is beauty in heroism.

Action: The Replacement Killers. And old story: a hitman gets a conscience and then become the target. But Chow Yun-fat is such a wonderful actor it doesn't feel like a rerun.

TV: Firefly. This is a brilliant sci-fi/western adventure series. It's the first series in a long time to develop such wonderful characters. Don't let the genre turn you off. You will love these characters.

I'm going to leave you with these and go put out some fires. Until Friday...

Willa's Flic Pic: Love Liza * * * *

2006-08-04T15:15:00.000-05:00

Love Liza
2002, Todd Louiso
Drama
* * * *

Mary Ann Bankhead: What did she say?
Wilson Joel: You wanna read it? Go ahead.
Mary Ann Bankhead: It doesn't have my name on it.
Wilson Joel: Yea you're right. It doesn't.
Mary Ann Bankhead: But if it did I would open it, because that's what she wants.
Wilson Joel: Wanted. What she wanted.
Mary Ann Bankhead: And you refuse to honor that.

There are certain moments in life that can only be experienced alone. No matter how excruciatingly painful, no one can go with you and no one can relieve your suffering. This is true in the death of a loved one. In the beginning visitors, calls and duties barrage you. Friends bring food and offer, "If there's anything I can do." Family hangs about trying to help with details. Phone calls are made and taken. Papers are signed and gathered. But the moment the service is over, the calls die down, and family goes home, you are left utterly alone. There is nothing and no one that can help you through this time. This is where Love Liza picks up.

Wilson Joel (Philip Seymour Hoffman) has just lost his wife, Liza, to suicide. We learn it was by sitting in their closed garage with the car running. She left him a sealed note that he carries around but can’t bring himself to read.

This is a very moving film. Hoffman gives a fantastic performance of a vulnerable man who has helplessly lost the woman he loves. You care so much for the character and want things to get better for him but you are equally helpless to intervene for him.

This is also an uncomfortable film. You are invited into someone's most intimate and personal struggle. Joel keeps his grieving so private from those around him that, as a secret witness, you feel invasive. Love Liza places you where no one goes except the grieving person, which makes this a very real experience.

This is not a date movie or a casual Friday night rental. But it is a movie you will highly appreciate. If it encourages you, it does have a positive ending, though it's open for interpretation based on your experience of the film.

The screenplay, written by Hoffman's brother, Gordy, won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. This was Todd Louiso's first directorial project and it was brilliant. I look forward to more of his work. You may recognize him from his acting roles in Jerry McGuire and High Fidelity.