The Shining.

I hate horror films (mostly because I scare easy), but I decided to watch Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" the other night for the first time because, well, it's Kubrick and certain people had been raving about it for a while, so I figured it's high time I suck it up and check it out.
Of course, during the following sequence, which in my opinion is one of the creepiest of the film, it started to rain like crazy outside, followed by thunder and lightning. How's THAT for pathetic fallacy?

(click to enlarge)

I also drew out a couple other random shots:

Obligatory.

I just really liked Shelly Duvall's expression in this one.

This was another great one. Danny is playing with his cars (which are arranged to lead your eye to the point) sitting at a spot which points directly off screen, rolling his car back and forth over the point, as the mysterious ball comes in from off screen.

I think this my most favourite shot in the film - it's amazing to actually see the staging in this. The room opening intersecting with Jack's head and leading your eye to the mirror, which reflects his bizarre expression and his eyes staring directly at Danny, leading you to Danny and Jack's hand, and so on. Even the pants laying on the stool lead you straight to Danny. Genius.

It's absolutely incredible to see the way this movie is set up - the entire first 3/4 of the film is foreshadowing and set up, like an elastic band being stretched to it's limit, to a point where it all just...snaps. Brilliant.

Also, I was dragged into seeing G.I.Joe...review coming soon.
R.

California 09

San Diego Comic Con 09

Pacific Beach - San Diego

Airport

Secret Journal

Coffee

Great trip to San Diego/LA for Comic Con and visiting friends, applying for work (still looking!) and just hanging out. Who knew I'd start loving LA so much? Weird.
Bigger, more entertaining post coming very soon. Promise. If you're in Toronto, Jeff Smith of Bone will be signing at the Indigo Bookstore at Yorkdale mall on Saturday August 8th. His new documentary DVD is awesome, pick it up if you can - it's called "The Cartoonist: Jeff Smith, Bone and the changing face of comics" Also, one of my favourite books that I picked up at the Comic Con besides Torch Tiger, was Kevin Dart's "Seductive Espionage: The World of Yuki 7" Simply stunning concept, execution and artwork. Really great. Check them out if you get a chance. Also, Kerascoet's Jolies Tenebres (published by Dupuis) is amazing as well, still trying to read it (french is rusty) but brilliant stuff. I'm absolutely in love with the simplicity and fantastic clarity in their art. Ronnie is much more eloquent than I in explaining it.

R.

Canadia!

Whenever I'm in the States, people always ask me what Canada is like. Today being Canada Day, and Canada's 142nd birthday, I figure I should finally give an accurate description, as well as clarify some myths about us neighboUrs to your North.

FACT: Canada is directly above (to the north of) the United States of America. We have 10 PROVINCES instead of STATES, as well as 3 TERRITORIES.

FACT: Our national colours are Red and White, and our flag features the Maple Leaf.
FACT: We have a Prime Minister instead of a President.

FACT: Our National Police are called the RCMP.

FACT: Each Province has their own Police force as well. Ontario's are called the Ontario Provincial Police.

FACT: Canada's national food is Tim Horton's, a "coffee" chain named after a famous hockey player.

FACT: Smarties in Canada are different! Instead of bizarre rolled up multicoloured chalky candy which we refer to as "rockets", Smarties are a delicious multicoloured chocolate. You are supposed to eat the red ones last.

FACT: It is always cold.

FACT: Fortunately, because we have winter all the time, we've gotten used to it and have acclimated to it.

FACT: We eat delicious Canadian chocolates called "Bueno Bars"

FACT: We go on maple syrup hunting expeditions riding moose into the wilderness.

FACT: In Canadia, Beavers are a man's best friend.



Note: Some of these facts may or may not be entirely ... true.

Happy Canada Day Everyone!

R.

Transformers 2

So, last week I made the mistake/choice of watching Transformers 2 - I *am* glad to say that there was no forking over of money on my part, thankfully. I thought I'd post my review/experience.

From the minute the opening credits rolled, the experience that was Transformers2 began. My life would never be the same.

Akin to the astronaut Dave from one of my favourite films 2001: A Space Odyssey, I may have seen Beyond the Infinite, I'm not entirely sure - as one never really can be.

I felt as though Director Extraordinaire Michael "KABOOM" Bay was actually physically inside my head, punching the very knowledge and being out of my brain for the 9 hour long duration of the movie.


I can't really remember when/how I stumbled out of the theater, it's all such a blur...this is the best rendition I can come up with based on the information I've pieced together.

It's not a blur for Michael "KABOOM" Bay though! He's laughing in his giant mac truck, painted like Optimus Prime, all the way to the bank.

I'm sorry that there aren't more details about the plot - or spoilers - as I can't really tell you what happened. There were explosions, loud colors, even louder noises. The entire movie looked like this to me:

I was reading up on the psyche of Michael "KABOOM" Bay, and I think this quote was amazing:

“Visual-effects supervisor Scott Farrar was in charge of turning Industrial Light & Magic’s computers up to 11 to create the new characters and told reporters that the sequel features 40 new characters. That and the increased resolution of the characters for new IMAX footage nearly exhausted ILM’s render farms: After one hard night of rendering computer-generated footage, some of the hardware actually exploded.”

Even the computers of ILM couldn't take the AWESOME that he was about to put on screen. He overcame, you guys.

I think this is the best movie review I've ever read

In short, you can clearly see that I really think you should go see the movie. It's a cinematic masterp...aw hell...It's the loudest, longest, eye-ringing, head-smacking movie I've ever seen, shock after shock of you wondering, "wow, how could this make any LESS sense?" and the question being answered over, and over, and over again.

If you do see it, don't resist it, don't try and make sense of it, let it take you. Whatever you think meets your eye, it's more than that.

KABOOOOOM!
R.

Clownin' Around.

Designs/character exploration for a comic/short project I'm attempting to develop.

Random Doodles

Here are a bunch of gestures I did this week while traveling the subway, and sitting in coffee shops. Been trying to work on some stuff I've been learning from the Stanchfield books. Still a long way to go, but hopefully these are going in the right direction.

It was this couple's 6 month anniversary - Marcia and Charles.

This was my good friend Matt's band "Silverlane". You should really check them out by clicking here.

Some gesture studies of the band

Some cool stuff I've found on the interwebs this week: Multicolr Search Lab lets you search Flickr by color. The new Gobelins films are out, too. Check out my friend Ugo's "Jelly Sunday"
Also, I recently started re-watching HBO's underrated series "Carnivale" - if you have some spare time and are wondering what to watch, definitely check it out. It got cancelled after two seasons, but worth it. Lastly, Jenny over at Blackwing Diaries has made a great post about Up, and animated films in general. Definitely worth a read.

New post coming soon!
R.