Dudishly

Huzzah, my tablet has arrived! I'm still trying to get used to holding a pen for long periods of time again, but i think I actually draw better with the tablet than I do on paper. Pretty much as soon as I'm done this post I'm going to start working on ideas for a new webcomic.

Movie Review Time!

Horton Hears a Who! (2008)
A really good movie for kids, with a few jokes aimed at adults that weren't inappropriate for kids either. The advances in computer animation continue to amaze me. I remember when Toy Story came along and it was the most advanced thing we'd ever seen, but this makes it look like Steamboat Willie. Jim Carrey, Steve Carrel, and Carrol Burnett, were brilliant as the lead characters, but I was particularly pleased that Will Arnett made an appearance as a Slavic vulture. This is an all around good family movie, and I highly recommend you see it.
(My rating - 4 out of 5)

I've decided this blog needs to be more than a diary, or the occasional movie review. I will continue to share things I find, and tell you about my life, and review movies. But if I want to get noticed, I need to have something that will draw people's attention. Like that guy who takes a picture of the sky from his balcony every day, or that blog about the puddle. I haven't any ideas for that yet either, but the decision has been made that something must be done. Any suggestions?

So what's the deal with Tibet?... Yeah I have no idea what's going on over there, sounds like a bunch of madness but I figured I'd better make sure people new I still pay SOME attention to the outside world.

P.S. Really, I don't pay attention to the outside world.

P.P.S. "Dudishly - In the manner of a dude." I found it in the scrabble dictionary last night.

Tagged

I have a new tattoo. On something of a whim I decided to get "Est. 1986" on the underside of my left forearm. I know it's a pretty serious whim, considering I now have ink that's visible in a t-shirt, but I'm totally happy with it. And it never won't be true. Unless I was actually born in 1985, which would really suck. Anyways, this now brings my collection of tattoos to 4 pieces. I have the word "Sinner" on my left bicep (from my more rebellious days, though I don't regret it); a pair of dice, each showing one pip, and the words "Snake Eyes" underneath in my own cursive; and a Sailor Jerry style swallow on my right shoulder (unfortunately I let this one get infected and lost a lot of ink, so I need it redone). Alas and Alack, I cannot find my digital camera, so I cannot share pictures at this time.

You may have noticed that my list of Drunks, Lovers, Sinners, and Saints has somewhat expanded. Go visit all of those links. They deserve it. I'll be talking more about some of those people I linked to in future posts as well. Also, "Drunks, Lovers, Sinners, and Saints" is the name of a song by Alexisonfire (probably my 2nd fave Canadian band), and they deserve props.

One of the new links is to Ctrl + Alt + Del by Tim Buckley. If you game, even a little, this comic will appeal to you. If you don't game, the zany humour will probably make you laugh anyways. Oooh, zany.

I also linked to Wondermark by David Malki !. Somewhat similar to Married to the Sea, to which I've linked previously, in that it uses pictures from old publications, but in strip form. I recently pre-ordered David's new book Beards of our Forefathers. It's a collection of Wondermark strips. The title is really what drew me in. There's another collection called The Annotated Wondermark, which I also plan on buying someday.

Julia Wertz, author of The Fart Party is currently out of work, so feel free to go buy some of her stuff. I just ordered the official Fart Party book. Should be a good read.

I'd like to finish this post with a movie review. So I will.

Atonement (2007)
No big surprise that this was nominated for best picture at the Oscars. No Country for Old Men must be damned good to have beat it. I seriously loved this movie. Acting was great, story was great, soundtrack was great. It was visually quite beautiful. There was only one scene I didn't like, which turned out to be like a dream-sequence anyways. Probably the best scene in the movie was the 5-minute-long shot of the Evacuation of Dunkirk. That one took some organization. Seriously, this is just a really well made movie, I don't even want to describe it anymore for fear of spoiling it. Don't go see this movie expecting a happy ending, but please go see it.
(My rating - 4.5 out of 5)

Superdesirously

I found some new webcomics this week, starting with The Fart Party, which is very sweary and vulgar but I love it to death and it makes me want to start making comics again (more on this later). I also found xkcd which is very wordsy and poignant but also pretty fun at the same time, especially for nerds like myself. Last but not least is FreakAngels which is actually like a "real" serial comic rather than the usual strips I read. The art is really impressive, but I'm waiting on the story to progress before I make a decision on it.

Back to me returning to the webcomic world... I bought a Wacom CTE450K Bamboo drawing tablet off of eBay last night. EBay wasn't my first choice because things I order from eBay shops have a habit of not showing up/showing up damaged. But as it turns out, Amazon.com doesn't want to ship electronics to Canada, and most of the other stores were charging an exorbitant price. So eBay it is. Anyhow, I want to draw again. So somehow I have to fit drawing, writing, working, and becoming a millionaire rock star into my schedule. Be prepared.

I took part in the democratic process today. My party won. Go figure. There's only been a conservative government in Alberta since 1921. Of course people are complaining, but clearly these people are wrong and have no idea what they're talking about. In all seriousness, I don't like to tell people what to believe. I just don't see how anyone in Alberta could vote anything except Progressive Conservative. I know it's sort of like voting for the lesser evil... but why would you WANT to vote for the worse?

That's all I can think of, so have a good night.

P.S. The title? Oh. I just liked the word.

Shrimp Cake

So apparently, Adolf Hitler made little watercolour paintings of a number of Disney characters. And they just found them. And people are all in a tizzy. And I'm thinking... who the hell cares?

Also, I just started 3 sentences in a row using 'and'. Go on, correct my grammar. Do it. Oh that's right you can't, because I beat you to it.

As you may have noticed, I don't have much to say right now. I've been playing too many video games, or reading Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series to actually find/do anything interesting to tell you about. But I figured I'd better post since it's been like 2 weeks, and I know the 5 or 6 people who read this blog were worried about me. (I just started a sentence with "but"!)

Oh, I've been looking at funny pictures over at collegehumour.com. That's always a good time, though it makes me regret not going to college. Anyways, if you're bored, go look at funny pictures and have fun.

Web Log No. 13, In Which Videos Are Shared

I Have 2 videos I'd like to share with you.

The first is "What's a Girl to Do?"by Bat for Lashes.



Second, Buck 65's "Devil's Eyes". This is from his album Secret House Against the World, which was more singin' than rappin'.


I wish more videos were like this. I'm more of an "artsy-fartsy music video" than "ass and bling music video" kind of guy.

Enjoy!

Nobody Moves, Nobody Gets Hurt

I've decided to write a novel. I won't get into the details as I'm really just working those out right now. I've tried this before but didn't have the drive to finish. I've actually had better progress with this than any other attempt, though, and it just feels... good. So keep an eye on the shelves at your local bookstore, you just might see something by Zechariah Unterberg. Oh, that's my pen name. No, not really. I just don't feel my name sounds... authorial enough to be on the cover of a book. Time will tell, I suppose.

Whats that? A movie review? Oh, if you insist.

Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
If this film had starred anyone but Johnny Depp as Sweeny Todd, and been made by anyone other than Tim Burton, I probably would have hated it. Don't get me wrong, it was a good movie. It was funny and interesting, and I was never once bored while watching it. There wasn't a performance I didn't enjoy, serious props to the casting directors. I even liked Helena Bonham Carter for once, in her roll as Mrs. Lovett. And Sacha Baron Cohen, where did you come from? Even though it wasn't very serious, that guy needs to play more serious rolls.
It was visually stunning, as is to be expected with Mr. Burton's work. But the songs weren't catchy. At all. I can't imagine anyone singing along to them ever. And I do realize that, in a gothic horror, blood is to be expected (especially in a gothic horror about an insane barber). I just feel there may have been a more subtle way to depict a throat being slashed. We don't need to see it, every single time, to know that its been done. Okay, the blood is a contrast with the dark environment, we get it.
(My Rating - 2.5 out of 5)

Also, I watched Cloverfield a while back. I'm not even going to bother with a critique. As far as I'm concerned it was a protest film, against the war in Iraq. The basic message was, if the US continues to send men overseas, there will be no one around to protect the American people from giant 3-legged monsters with pulsating brains.

Hattie McDaniel 1896 - 1952

Hattie McDaniel was born in Wichita, Kansas, on June 1oth, 1896. Her parents were former slaves, and she was the youngest of 13 children.
Hattie dropped out of highschool to enter showbusiness, joining her brothers Otis and Sam in her father's show, The Henry McDaniel Minstrel. In 1910 she won a gold medal for reciting a poem, in a contest in which she was the only black peformer. In 1920, after the death of her brother Otis, she joined Professor George Morrison's Melony Hounds, becoming the first black woman to sing on the radio.
While working as a washroom attendant at Club Madrid in Milwaukee she was overheard singing and, at the request of patrons, soon became a regular performer on the stage there.
She moved to Los Angeles with her brother Sam and sisters Etta and Orlena in 1931 and, with the help of her brother, once again gained employment in radio. She starred as Hi-Hat-Hattie, an outspoken housemaid on the program The Optimistic Do-Nut Hour. Her salary from the show was so low that Hattie had to work as a maid in real life.
Hattie made her big-screen debut in 1932's The Golden West, in the roll of a maid. She followed up with I'm No Angel, starring Mae West, as (you guessed it) a maid. She continued to star in small rolls until the mid-1930s. When she was criticized by the black community for continually taking the roll of a maid, she replied "I'd rather play a maid than be one"
In 1939 Hattie starred as Mammy in Gone With The Wind. She was barred from attending the premier of the film in Atlanta, Georgia, because of segregationist laws (her co-star and good friend Clark Gable refused to attend without her, until she persuaded him to go). She won the Academy Award for best supporting actress for her work in the film, becoming the first black person to win an Oscar.
Hattie continued to act in movies, still quite often as a maid, until her final film Family Honeymoon in 1949. She appeared on radio and televison programs until she became to ill to do so.
Hattie died of cancer on October 25th, 1952. Unfortunately, prejudice followed her even after death. Hollywood cemetery, where she wished to be buried, did not accept the burial of blacks at that time. Her family instead had her interred in historic Angelus Rosedale Cemetery. The current owners of Hollywood Cemetery offered to have her remains moved in 1999, but her family declined. The owners erected a cenotaph in her honour instead.
Hattie was married 4 times. Her will left exactly $1 to her ex-husband Larry Williams.
In February 2006, Hattie was featured on a United States postage stamp, wearing the dress in which she recieved her Oscar.She two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for her work in radio and one for her work in movies.

"Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, fellow members of the motion picture industry and honored guests: This is one of the happiest moments of my life, and I want to thank each one of you who had a part in selecting for one of the awards, for your kindness. It has made me feel very, very humble; and I shall always hold it as a beacon for anything that I may be able to do in the future. I sincerely hope I shall always be a credit to my race and to the motion picture industry. My heart is too full to tell you just how I feel, and may I say thank you and God bless you." - Hattie McDaniel's Oscar Acceptance Speach