EPIC. FAIL.

Yep. That sums up this blog as a whole. Never really had one since the LiveJournal my freshman year of college and really only started this one because... well I don't know. Anyhow, new car after the old one died, loving my work but hating my job, breaking my hand, school, regular nights of D&D (don't judge). hanging out with greatly missed people. It's been good, it's been frustrating. I'll still post thing, likely rarely, but to the zero people reading this, this may be the last post. Ta ta.

Project365, #88: Chewie Needs A Shave

Tonight the insanely talented Chris Schweizer signed copies of his newly released sketchbook. He's such a nice guy he took the time to sketch each one individually for everyone in line. Per my request, here is Chewbacca shaving his face. Fan-damn-tastic.

REVIEW: Attack The Block

When the inevitable robot uprising/zombie apocalypse/alien invasion occurs, you better hope that they land/rise from the dead/become self-aware in the ghetto. If they land in the suburbs or more affluent areas of town, we are all fucked. The kids in Joe Cornish's Attack The Block are rough-and-tumble enough that when it comes down to it, they will not hesitate to bash in a head when needed.

In contrast to practically every other film of the genre, our protagonists are inner-city youths whose hobbies include video games, mugging, and smoking pot. They aren't some gang of pretty high schoolers; they're just a gang. It's daring really. Rather than wallowing in the darkness of slum life, Cornish revels in the mischievousness of youth. Make no doubt about it, these kids are punks and if they were on one side of the street you'd likely cross over to the next. However, their trouble making lifestyle sets them apart from your typical sci-fi/horror heroes in a key way: these kids are pro-active. They know there is no military rushing in. There's no scientists trying to figure out why the alien are here and what their weaknesses are. They don't over think it. You run, you hide, you grab a weapon, you fight back. Where they are from you don't ask for help, you help yourself.

It shocks me that Joe Cornish is a first time feature film director. Nothing on screen looks like it belongs in an £8 million film. He squeezed every bit out of each pence and schilling. Cornish is more than a man who knows how to use a small budget. The action is perfectly paced and well shot yet he handles character nuance and the more delicate moments with the same ease. To add to the degree of difficult, the entire gang of misfits are all first time actors! As if all that is not impressive enough, take a look at the particulars: the creature design is unique, the use of sound is incredibly effective, and the storytelling is bold. I am predicting it right now: Joe Cornish is going to be on the director short-list from just about every big budget film from comic book properties to crazy animated adventures.

Ninja swords, foul mouthed 9 1/2 year olds, teenage decapitation, and a whole new vernacular to use. It has it all and just as importantly, it has serious mass public appeal. It's like Goonies meets Kids meets Critters. In short, I fucking loved Attack The Block and it needs your support. Word of mouth, social media, do what you can.

Project365, #84: JCVD

Split kicking his price on premium hardwood flooring so low that it makes quite a HARD TARGET. Yeah?!?!

Project365, #83: Creature Feature

Some times at work it hard to tell which of us is the child.

Project365, #82: Pooh Cloud

Sadly I only had my iPhone to snap the image of a Winnie the Pooh cloud.

Project365, #81: Time Travel #21 (Blink)

Meet my newest roommate, Jackie's kitty, Blink. She finally seems to not hate me.

Project365, #80: Time Travel #20 (Self Portrait 3)

Project365, #79: Time Travel #19 (Self Portrait 2)

"Food Drunk"

Project365, #78: Time Travel #18 (Self Portrait 1)

Self-portrait for photography class. First of three. Irony. Get it? GET IT?!

Project365, #77: The Joy? of Sex

Project365, #76: Time Travel #17 (The Human Landscape 3)

Both models now!

Project365, #75: Time Travel #16 (The Human Landscape 2)

Male nude. So much hair. "Interesting" guy.

Project365, #74: Time Travel #15 (The Human Landscape)

Broken Hand. Not easy to type. Apologize for curtness, Anyhow...

Nudes! Using the body as "landscape" was my aim. First up, our nude female model:

Project365, #73: Time Travel #14 (Ouch)

Broke my knuckle, a metacarpal, and my wrist at work. Typing is difficult obviously. Word use will be sparse.

Project365, #72: Time Travel #13 (Photography Class 5)

Depth! (that's what she said). Finally we have moved on to aperture/f-stop/depth/z-plane! Simple assignment here: get a clear fore-, mid-, and background with distinctions between each. Voila!

Project365, #71: Time Travel #12 (The Gates of Hell)

How bad is GPC? Just past this wall in their parking garage is the river Styx. And the band Styx is there too. The horror...

Project365, #70: Time Travel #11 (Two Tickets)

I can't help but create stories for just about every thing I find. Inanimate objects, especially. While on campus I spotted a small raffle ticket. Instantly I decided it was lost. If it's owner had kept it perhaps that could have won that big price and their life would have been that much better. CLICK. Then the sun came out, elevating this sad tale to "Holy Fuck I Found A Winning Ticket!" Below is my attempt to capture to opposing stories with the same item.

Project365, #69: Free Comic Book Day

How quickly the year has passed. Here we are again with another Free Comic Book Day. This year it consisted of a brief stop by Oxford Comics to say hello to Domo and Irene and then on to Criminal Records to see Hunter, Remington, and Cara. If you are not familiar with these artists, do yourself a favor, click their names, and "ooh" and "ahhh" at their work.

After everyone closed up shop, it was time from some nerdcore, silver age hip hop, courtesy of Adam WarRock and Tribe One. Is you like hip hop and you know what the Infinity Gauntlet is, you'll dig these guys. They've got songs about "girl comics," a great one about Dr. Who, and a fantastic track all about Chris Schweizer's Crogan Series.

Free comics, talented, cool folk, and nerd rap. Good times.

Project365, #68: Time Travel #10 (Photography Class 4)

More light-doodles!

Project365, #67: Time Travel #9 (Photography Class 3)

It's almost July and I'm backing posts to early May. So far behind. Thank goodness for my time machine...

....zzzzrk...

SHUTTER SPEED! Finally out of Auto-mode I was able to play with the white balance and shutter speed, but that's it thus far. Can't touch any other settings per prof's suggestion.

Initially we took some photos around campus, working in dark, shaded, and sunny areas. Some of those may show up in another post. However, one day, we got to spend hours in a dark room drawing with penlights. Aside from the "ooh let's spell the alphabet!" I ended up with some very interesting "accidents."

Part one:

Project365, #66: Time Travel #8 (Photography Class 2)

Bzzzzt....flux capacitor allows us to travel to...

Third photography class brought yet another challenge. First we had to chose the item we had with us that meant the most. For me it was my old beaten composition notebook I use to draft scenes and jot down ideas. From there we had a limited area (again) in which we had to take photos of the object fitting four different themes: it weighs 10,000 lbs, light as a feather, isolation, and "creeper." It was far more difficult than I expected, as my object was not ideal. Thankfully we only had to choose two themes, a photo each, to present. Here is "isolation" and "creeper."

Project365, #65: ¿Puedo comer Doritos en la biblioteca?

Project365, #64: Commerce

Thanks I-285!

Project365, #63: Time Travel #7 (Photography Class)

Time Machine on...sending photos back from June...hating that I'm this far behind.

As I've mentioned before I'm taking post-baccalaureate classes at GPC to boost my undergrad GPA in hopes of actually getting accepted by the Masters program I want. Last semester I took Education, Art, and Film courses, all things I was familiar with and knew I could ace (which I did). So the brief summer semester, I took the same strategy by taking Music and Photography. Music class is a joke, which I may get in to with a later post, but the photography class is small, intimate, and full of some rad folks. For our first day with cameras, he gave a seemingly simple task: find two subjects and take photos. There were restrictions however: we only had 10 minutes; the subject had to be in the small courtyard just outside our building; must be presented as is (no cropping, color correction, anything); worst of all, the camera must be in the "auto" setting. The idea was to keep it simple and basic, allowing us to exercise our eye and understand framing. Like I said, very basic.

Anyhow, I took about 50-60 photos of a half dozen objects. Tomorrow I take three prints to show the class and we'll discuss. Interesting realization, all but one of them fall in with a them of "being discarded." Seems appropriate for GPC. Here is what I came up with within all those restrictions: