There’s just this incredible sadness after watching this movie. You want to believe the filmmaker’s words that the film had became a tribute to Andrews parents, but really? Maybe there’s just nothing you can say about a situation like that. I mean the movie builds for about an hour and 15 minutes before they drop the shock on you.  I have NEVER felt shock like that in a movie, maybe because in a FILM you know it didn’t really happen. You can tell yourself that this is all a dream and the monsters aren’t real. But this really happened, the monsters are real. They live with us every day. They are that guy “who just never seemed right” they are all around us every day. I just don’t know how to feel about this… On one hand I want everyone to feel that kind of loss when I die. I want to be the kind of person that would inspire people to film a documentary about me.  I want the outpouring of affection, but I just feel so empty inside after this movie. I really feel for them, I don’t even know this person or his family and I REALLY feel for them. I’m having a real emotional response that I’ve never had watching a movie. It’s tough to get to know someone and then have them taken away from you, even if it’s just on film.

What can I do?

I’m gonna go watch Ghostbusters.

That’s still how I feel a month after I watched that movie. I’m not going to reccomend anyone watch this movie, it’s a good film. It’s one of those movies like Requiem for a Dream^W that you only have to watch once. But I have no idea what kind of mood you need to be in to appreciate it. I wouldn’t watch it on your happiest day, because it would ruin your day. But I wouldn’t want to be too depressed going into it, because you might end it all.

Schu-Review : 4 out of 5 Schus

So which was it? Terrible or Awesome?

Find out more after the break?

But have no fear few people reading this blog! Mr Burton is back in his Big Fish form! (which I think was his best movie). I was afraid that the movie would be too twisted for it’s own good, that it would trade shock for story. But the characters, despite being mutant freaks have hearts and real depth. Not that there are a shortage of twisted parts, severed heads, dragons, extra creepy rabbits. I have to admit I’m not exactly a Wonderphile (someone who is a fan of Alice in Wonderland as a genre) So I know about parts of the stories, but I’m really familiar with the Disney Cartoon. So there’s something strange about the translation from cartoon to live action fantasy film. For me it’s a little like the Twilight Zone movie mixed with Roger rabbit, scary at one moment and funny the next.

I think my unfamiliarity with the back story and the fact that I haven’t seen the cartoon version in a long time made the film extra interesting for me.  I really didn’t know what was going to happen next. I was unsure what parts were from the original story and which were added in. I heard Tim Burton say that he didn’t intend this as a sequel, but that’s all that I can imagine it as. But in the sense that Hook is a sequel to Peter Pan.

With Katherine Bigelow^W winning the Best director Oscar the other night, All the attention on Lindsey Vonn^W and her gold medal at the Olympics, and then this movie making boatloads of money at the box office I would say that this year is looking great for women. I think it would be a great time to raise a little girl, they have so many examples of strong women in many different fields.

The saving grace of this movie it that no matter how weird it got;  it was still a great story about a heroine finding the courage to fight her fears and make choices in her life. If I have a daughter she’s definitely seeing this movie! At what age? That is another story.

Schu-Review: 4.5 out of 5 Schus

Slade – Who The Fuck Is Alice

Download audio file (Slade-Who-The-Fuck-Is-Alice.mp3)

Beerfest!

There are a ton of times that I’m watching a commercial and I say “Hey it’s that guy from that movie!” and then everybody responds.

What? From where? What are you talking about? Why are you so excited?

I know actors have to work to make money, so I’m not looking down on them. It’s just that I identify them with one role in my head and then they come out selling car wax and I think it’s funny. Most of the time the role I know them from isn’t even their biggest role, some times the commercial becomes more famous than the movie role.

That is the case here. I know this guy as Mr. Schniedelwichsen, the German guy who leads the two brothers to Beerfest… and then subsequently gets killed. So then last year he showed up in a commercial that is probably more widely seen than Beerfest, as the “Think with your dipstick” Guy for Castrol Motor oil. But I first spotted him in a IBM ad for their medical imaging tech. I remember seeing him in that white lab coat and thinking… “Are they trying to pass off the guy from Beerfest as an actual doctor?”

More pictures and videos after the break…

Dipstick!

Scientist

Actor

Through a little research I found that his name is Bjorn Johnson and he teaches acting in LA. He really looks like a Bjorn Johnson!

It looks like he’s been in a LOT of commercials. More that I had seen. Some of them look familiar, but It could be that this guy has a really identifiable ginger beard. He can be in all the commercials he wants and to me he’ll still be “That guy from Beerfest!”

Rock on Bjorn!

Fade to Black

Beer Review:

Chocolate coffee sweet molassasy thick feel bite of hops. This is a good black ale. You have to be in a dark beer  mood to drink it, but you’ll be rewarded if you do. There’s so much flavor inside this bottle, the smell of dark chocolate, the taste of strong coffee. It has a thick sweet texture with a formidable bite of hops at the end. At 8% ABV it’s pretty strong, so a 6 pack will probably do you in for the night. But the beer is so strong tasting that I’d recommend stopping at 3.  Overall it’s just a good beer that I will seek out again.

Bottle Review:

This may be one of the best designed bottles that I’ve seen in a while. I could be that I’m really into this old english ribbon-y font right now, but I think it’s timeless.  The cut of the label and how it’s just filled with so many details that it almost becomes texture. You kind of just feel like a badass when you’re drinking it. When a beer is called ‘Fade to Black Ale’ you need an awesome bottle to match it.

Schu-Review : 4 out of 5 Schus

van no. 32 (green and yellow), originally uploaded by Orrin.

Yesterday Laurel called me because her car (1994 Saab 9000) wouldn’t go into drive at a red light. She shifted into reverse and back to drive and it started again. Turns out that her transmission fluid was low. But it got me thinking about having to buy a new car if Laurel’s starts to die.

My first car was a 1987 Chevy Van 20 that had been the family van for about 10 years before it was passed down to me. This meant that I was ‘The Van Guy’ for all my friends. I drove them around and I carried lots of crap around with me. So I have a special place in my heart for vans. Aesthetically I just like their shape, they’re like the rounded-rectangle tool of vehicle design. But they do have sort of a stigma among the ‘Normal non-van owning people’ that the people inside them may either be pedophiles or just crazy people living inside them. Part of me wants a sweet airbrushed mural on the side, but that may be taking it too far.

Is my desire to own a sweet custom van greater than my desire to fit in with normal society? We’ll have to see!

Stitch the Lids

I’ve been really interested in custom lettering for a long time now. I’ve just started producing work that I’m happy with. There’s something abotu custom lettering and fonts that appeals to both sides of my personality. It has the creative influence of finding out where each letter is going and how they’re interact with eachother. Then comes in the technical side of getting it into illustrator. But then my obsessive side takes over and I get lost trying to make everything exactly right. I think my work suffers here, I try to line everything up too much and it all  ends up being too exact and looking a little stiff. But I’m working on it.

Still pictures make us look like we actually know what we’re doing. Like this one where I look like a complete badass.

Through the movie you see how much promise and success they had back in the beginning and then they just kind of went nowhere, but they never gave up. Now it’s 30 years later and they’re still trying to make it. The movie focuses on the lead singer and drummer of Anvil. The lead singer ‘Lips’ is the one in the band who won’t let the dream die, he works at a catering company and takes vacation time to play shows. There are people in his life that you can see don’t share his vision and don’t really support him. But his girlfriend and older sister stick with him no matter what. Maybe that’s the part that really resonated personally with me? The other main character is the drummer, Robb Reiner (not the actor/director). He and Lips have this rocky ‘Brothers in Metal’ relationship that creates some intense emotional moments through out the film. When the ending comes you are so emotionally invested in this band that they really feel like family.

I cannot believe that this movie didn’t even get nominated for best documentary in the Academy Awards. The only close competition I would give it was The Cove and that for me is a distant second. Food Inc., the front runner for the award, was NOTHING compared to this movie. ANVIL doesn’t need flashy graphics or voice overs, it thrives on basic human spirit. The story of Anvil provided enough emotion for 10 movies.

If you have a heart and a dream, you will love this movie.

watch the trailer
buy the music

Schu-Review : 5 out of 5 Schus

*UPDATE*
Apparently this movie came out in 2007, but since I just watched it last week. I’m still calling it the best documentary of 2009.

Before

After

This blog redesign is still a work in progress, my strategy has been to get something out there that is functional and then add onto it piece by piece until it’s perfect. I’d always noticed that the posts themselves were a little plain, but I just couldn’t find something that fit the style. I thought it would be cool to have a sort of Apple-ish calendar poking out of the top of every blog post…. so that’s what I made. Doing these little things is a good way to keep my design skills fresh in between actual paying design jobs. Which are few and far between.

On the code side it’s not that much of a change, just added a fee floated divs here and there and a couple lines to the CSS file. I’ve pushed this template so far that I’m begining to think I should make an actual theme out of it and submit it to Wordpress.

Maybe I’ll get there eventually, but it’s not perfect yet.