Invincible

Been reading this series lately... a lot of fun, with many satisfying jokes and references. The fish gentleman there is that comics version of an Atlantean.

RRRAAAAAAGE IT

Movie night ideas: Cult/Camp edition

The Swamp Thing



Tromeo and Juliet



The Toxic Avenger



Sleeper



Zelig



Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb



The Man Who Fell to Earth



Pee Wee's Big Adventure



The Blues Brothers



Phantasm

July 06: Time travelers, robots ...apathy.

July 6, 1957: John Lennon Meets Paul McCartney. Happy birthday to Frida Kahlo, Paul Gasol and Cassanova Frankenstein himself, Geoffrey Rush. Regards to George W. Bush.


I read Scott Pilgrim vol. 1-5 recently and strongly recommend them. Good story, fun art, interesting characters and enough videogame nostalgia to keep anyone raised by a sega genesis smiling.

Some other recommended reading:
Books:
For Us, The Living - Robert A. Heinlein: Heinlein's first book, unpublished until 2003. "Perry Nelson, a normal 1939 engineer, is driving his automobile when he has a blowout, skids over a cliff, and wakes up in the year 2086." Heinlein uses a utopian future to explain his social and political beliefs.

Manga:
Pluto - Naoki Urasawa: Retelling of "The Greatest Robot on Earth" story arc of Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy, presented as a murder mystery. "Pluto follows the Europol robot detective Gesicht in his attempts to solve the case of a string of robot and human deaths. The case becomes more puzzling when evidence suggests a robot is responsible for the murders..."

Solanin - Inio Asano "Meiko and Taneda graduated from university two years ago. Having no real goals or direction, they step into society, clueless." A two volume manga about the reality of post college life in Tokyo. Jobs, relationship issues, parental disappointment and a struggling band portrayed realistically. A story of two unmotivated twenty somethings trying to make a relationship work.

For a better review of Solanin go here.

In which literature explains it better than I

On Glen Beck's misuse of knowledge of our founding fathers.

"Learning is a good thing, but more often it leads to mistakes. It is like the admonition of the priest Konan. It is worthwhile just looking at the deeds of accomplished persons for the purpose of knowing our own insufficiencies. But often this does not happen. For the most part, we admire our own opinions and become fond of arguing." - Hagakure

work

working on my drawing skills. not enough motivation to write a blog, thinking about turning the site into a webcomic. we shall see.

Robert A. Heinlein on art.

"Anybody can look at a pretty girl and see a pretty girl. An artist can look at a pretty girl and see the old woman she will become. A better artist can look at an old woman and see the pretty girl that she used to be. But a great artist - a master - and that is what Auguste Rodin was - can look at an old woman, protray her exactly as she is . . . and force the viewer to see the pretty girl she used to be . . . and more than that, he can make anyone with the sensitivity of an armadillo, or even you, see that this lovely young girl is still alive, not old and ugly at all, but simply prisoned inside her ruined body. He can make you feel the quiet, endless tragedy that there was never a girl born who ever grew older than eighteen in her heart . . . no matter what the merciless hours have done to her. Look at her, Ben. Growing old doesn't matter to you and me; we were never meant to be admired - but it does to them. Look at her." - Jubal E. Harshaw from Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein, on 'La Belle Heaulmiere by Auguste Rodin(pictured above)

Dear Tea Party: Your protests are useless and your members are ignorant.

Now that I have that out of my system...

I went through my collection recently to sort out my Foreign Language Films by country of origin instead of the ole' alpha-num. To celebrate Tax Day here are trailers for fifteen of my favorites. I should apologize as some of the previews are low quality (resolution), just poorly made to begin with, or even homemade...though not by me.

I think quality previews are important to a films success. If you want a good example I recommend sandwiching the worst preview on the list (probably Bangkok Dangerous with it's horrible English overdub) between two of the best (Survive Style 5+, Let the Right One In, Tokyo!).



Japan:

Bright Future


Pulse(Kairo)


Rampo Noir


Survive Style 5+



China:

2046


Fulltime Killer



South Korea:

Oldboy


Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring



Thailand:

Bangkok Dangerous (please try to ignore the obnoxious English overdub)


Last Life in the Universe



Sweden:

Let the Right One In



Czech Republic:

Faust(does not do the movie justice... but only trailer i found under 9mins)



Germany:

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari



France:

City of Lost Children


Tokyo!