John Kricfalusi’s Blog

One of the blogs that I check almost daily is written by John Kricfalusi, the man who created Ren and Stimpy.  Not only is his blog visually oriented but it is insightful and often very opinionated.  He seems to have two main focuses in his writings: one is to start up new projects and the other is to educate, not only the people he intends to hire for the projects, but also the general public.  His educational portions consist mostly of John breaking down the slow degradation of cartoons since their creation in the 20’s.  His descriptions about how bad 80’s cartoons are is really interesting.  He also injects his blog with cartoon clips that he thinks are fun and well made like the mother goose clip above (this is currently my desktop picture).  So if you like cartoons, and really there isn’t any reason you shouldn’t, check out his blog by clicking here.

This was originally posted as “John Kilpatrick’s Blog” but I have been corrected by John Kilpatrick that he didn’t in fact create Ren and Stimpy.  I salute both John’s though I have yet to find the true blog of John Kilpatrick.

The Religon of Rick Steves . . . or, Why I don’t like Rick Steves

So I had this long conversation with a nice lady about two month ago and was told that I should put my thoughts down on paper.  Now I am finally getting to it.

I’m not quite sure how we got to this topic but I was the one who injected the comment “Yeah, that’s the same reason I don’t like Rick Steves.”  Keep in mind I’m talking to a woman I had never met, at a gallery opening featuring the work of Jean-Pierre Hebert and Julien Audebert, which has nothing to do with Rick Steves or travel.  But that quick and seemingly out of place statement lead me to explaining myself for about a half an hour.

So, why don’t I like Rick Steves?  My number one reason is that he writes books on experiencing what others have missed out on when they have gone on a European trip.  He features things like restaurants, parks and festivals that he happened to stumble upon when abroad and he points out how wonderful those experiences were.  That’s fine, any travel guide is going to do that, otherwise their books wouldn’t sell.  My problem is that his writing is about these quaint locations devoid of tourists yet because he has written about them they become tourist destinations.

When traveling abroad everyone wants to have their own experience but to me Rick Steves takes that away.  You show up in Bath, England and find that all the places you have been excited about going to (because you have been reading Rick’s book the whole plain ride over) are filled with people who are looking at the same detailed feature on a fountain that you were going to look at.

I have to pause here and say that I really have nothing against Rick, I have listened to his NPR program and he sounds like a good guy.  Maybe I should change my statement to say that I don’t like travel guide books.  The reason that Rick Steves gets to me more than other writers is that when you are in Europe it seems like four out of five tourist families is reading one of his books, and that is because they are such good reads and do send you to some fantastic locations.

I heard recently that it is very common for American tourists to want to have a one of a kind experience and that this need comes from our history of rediscovering the old world.  If we find out that others have had the same experience as us it seems to cheapen our own experience.  That’s where this is all leading.  As a child I went on three wonderful European trips with my family that I wouldn’t trade for the world.  While we were on those trips my parents read Rick Steves.  Rick successfully predicted the presence of gypsies in two different locations we went, which prevented us from being robbed.  But I wonder what would have been in store if we had been robbed and been stuck in one location for a long time.  I guess I’m just lamenting spontaneity.  I’m sad that we didn’t find that one restaurant, or that park with an accordion player.  We went ‘by the book’.

Cutest Kitty Ever

So I have the cutest cat ever in the whole world.  His name is Pyewacket or Pye for short.  He is named after the film ‘Bell, Book and Candle’ staring Kim Novak and Jimmy Stuart.  Good film, you should check it out.

I’m back on the post

I know it has been a long time but I’m back.

More movie, art and just plain ranting posts to come.

Woody Allen Weekend

I’ve had a good weekend watching three Woody Allen movies I hadn’t previously watched.  The first one was Manhattan.  I liked it but I it isn’t on my top list.  I felt like it was too much of an outlet for Woody’s inelegance and lacked enough plot to keep me really interested.

The second one I watched was Manhattan Murder Mystery and as you can assume it was much more plot driven.  This was a wonderful film.  Woody was sharp as a tack as usual and the combination of that with suspense really made this film shine.  He also brought back Diane Keaton, the only female costar Woody has ever had real on-screen chemistry with.

The third film of Woody’s was his early and often unappreciated What’s Up, Tiger Lilly?.  Here Woody took a Japanese action film and redubbed it with with crack humor.  Now I can understand why this might not be the most popular of his films but I was a lot of fun.  The ridiculous dialogue fits the actions so well that you almost can’t make out the original intent of certain scenes.

The Night of the Hunter – Visual Masterpiece

The Night of the Hunter is a black and white film staring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters and Lillian Gish (man she is good). It is an outstanding, not hard-boiled, example of film noir. Director, Charles Laughton, is amazing at using sets to make seemingly two dimensional sets with an unworldly quality, not unlike films of the German Expressionist movement and the feel of the Twilight Zone.

The film is about a psychotic ‘priest’ who marries the widow of a man he killed in prison in order to get a hold of previously stolen money. This leads to him stalking two children. Talk about crazy religious people, this movie has ‘em. The combination of fundamentalist christian ideals and a blood thirsty mad man brings this chilling movie way up on my list. I mean, come on, who doesn’t like to cast a cynical eye on fundamentalists.

This film went on to inspire John Kricfalcusi, the animator best known for the Ren and Stimpy Show. For anyone who has seen Ren and Stimpy I think it will be obvious. Many of his human caricatures look strikingly like Robert Mitchum.

I love this shot, Shelley Winters looking hopeful right after she has been slapped by her psycho husband

The use of cut out sets and splashes of light to create a scene

Again, cut out set. So good

I like this framing

2D buildings look great and that fake sky is so wonderful

Fake horizon is perfect with a horse riding on it

Whistler’s Mother with a shot gun

Marven K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!

Satan is getting killed, its getting smoothed out!

Movie Review for Danielson: a Family movie {or, Make a Joyful Noise HERE}

This was an interesting documentary about a great band. Interesting because instead of focusing mainly on the events that lead to what is going on now in the life of the bands Danielson and The Danielson Family, the makers chose to dwell, for the whole film, on the fact that Danielson is a Christian band that does not fit into the Christian-Band genera. Yes, I agree that this is interesting and a point that makes Danielson a very unique performer but even Daniel Smith (Danielson) didn’t want to dwell on this point. What I can say for the movie is that it was incredibly informative about the history and the components that went into creating what is now commonly viewed as a strange shrieking man in a tree costume. It gives you a very personal aproach to the band, featuring large chunks of the film that are narrated by (family and friend) band members. I enjoyed it, but thought that it dragged a little to the end. It will make you want to find more of this wonderful music.

The Danielson Family in their ‘healing’ nurses outfits

Polaroid

Hi everyone.  Just thought that I would post a picture.  This is outside the front door of my apartment.

If you want to see some more Polaroids I have taken recently you can see them here.

On a sad note, Polaroid is discontinuing its production of instant film and paper.  They predict that there stock will be completely gone by 2009.  These are sad times.

Friends Come In All Sizes

Anyone who hasn’t seen the movie Death To Smoochy should go out an rent it, unless you have kids.  This dark comedy takes a look at the slimy underbelly of children’s entertainment including a corrupt charity, drug addicted show hosts, a children’s show gropie and of course Nazis.  But in all actuality it is fairly light hearted and innocent.

Yma Sumac

I just caught on to Yma Sumac, a Peruvian singer made famous in the 1950’s. She is so damn exotic it is just wonderful. She sounds like Maria Callas meets Esquivel meets jungle sound fx. She has a four octave vocal range with a strong soprano and a resonate bass. Here is a video you might like and yes that is her actual voice.