Entertainment

Not only a good Martial Arts movie but a great movie in general.

It takes its time, it displays a great care for the subject and it has a very likeable main character.
Highly recommended.

-

- N+, a pure plattformer, nothing but jumping and getting killed. Very short and fulfilling levels. Perfect for the DS.
To get an idea, here is the flash version!

SPIDERMAN 2, good mechanics, good use of the "GTA" open world style, had fun just swinging through New York. Did not finish the end fight though BECAUSE IT SUCKED!

- PSYCHONAUTS, good voice acting, has a nice weirdness and fun level design.
Stoped playing during a boss fight because of pretty much the same reasons as with Spiderman 2. -> dieing because of bad camera, no fun

Sketchbook pages / Movies and Books

ALSO:

- did not like the new HULK movie (mostly because the trailer already had managed to show EVERYTHING! that was in it)
- saw "Bigger, Stronger, Faster" and was impressed by it (a documentary about steroids. Well made and highly entertaining)
- saw "No end in sight", also well made and often times painful to watch.
- read "Pattern recognition" by William Gibson and liked the mood.
- currently re-reading "Kafka on the shore" by Haruki Murakami. Liking even more the second time.

THE DARK KNIGHT, finally

I´m just back from the theater and wanted to write some words.
But then i saw this review from CHUD and it basically says everything i would have written but with good spelling and grammar.

(...)
"I don't think that film transcends that genre as much as it seeks to not be in it; Nolan's made a crime movie that has a guy in a stupid suit smack in the middle of it. Of course that's the beauty of superhero stories, much like westerns or science fiction stories - you can meld them with other genres. A cowboy can investigate a murder just as two people can fall in love on a space ship. There's an even more condescending notion that The Dark Knight takes itself more seriously than other superhero movies - as if this is an inherently good thing."
(...)
LINK

Movie report: "Mulholland drive" and others

I have watched allot of movies in the last couple of days.

COMEDIAN
- I once read that comedians, or people that make money by telling jokes, (be it drawings or while standing on a stage) are the saddest and most depressing folks to be around ( see also charles schulz OF ALL PEOPLE).
Watching "Comedian" made me realize that this seems to be very very true.

This may be due to the fact that standing on a stage and telling jokes is simply one of the hardest things one can do.
Your audience is going to "critic" you IMMEDIATELY by simply not laughing and that may be while having to perform for 30 more minutes in front of them.

If you do a gallery show, one painting just awesome and the rest OK.. everyone will talk about the great one.
This is especially true if your a known name.
Same goes for a music album. One hit single on an album is enough.
The rest of the tracks are alright to be mediocre.

But going up on a stage, telling one great joke and failing on the rest to live up to that will get you dragged offstage.

One of the performers in the movie said it the best:
"People always say to me "Your a funny guy!" until they hear that I make a living of it;
then its always "Well, not THAT funny".



ROGUE
- A movie about a huge crocodile, eating tourists in the Australian outback.
If your in the mood for a huge-animal-movie, rent it by all means.
Its not awful and is able to hold the suspense for the whole duration of the film.








FIGHT CLUB
- Still a good film, not destroyed by stupid people and hipster kids.







CITY OF GOD
- More predictable and dramatized than i thought.
I expected it to be more "documentary" style than full fledged movie.
Watching THE WIRE and all the other works by David Simon has changed my perception on how to handle "true" stories in movies/TV.






A BITTERSWEET LIFE
- Not as good as i remembered.
Its also weird that i did not like the main guy this time around.
His decisions seemed weird and the girl story felt forced.
Still, good music, good all around mood.






MULHOLLAND DRIVE
- see comic above

ze bat and some media

While THE DARK KNIGHT is breaking records in the US, its still a month away from starting in my little part of Europe.
Excitement got me still and so i drew a version of Gotham's first millionaire!


ON MEDIA:
- watched DIARY OF THE DEAD and it was awful.
How awful? SO FUCKING AWFUL! I have a hard time really seeing this a an Romero movie.. it felt more as if his 16 year old son and his best friend made something while he was asleep on a porch.
Yes, i understand that some people might say its a very clever film because it makes you believe that its cheesy and stupid (and that this is meant as a commentary on our entertainment and information industry) but screw that.
Even commentary needs to be entertaining and well made!

- continuing with this trend in watching crap, i saw JUMPER!
Its Anakin doing some dimension jumping, making bored faces and he is joined by a pretty girl, Billy Elliot and Mace Windu.
I once wanted to read the book this pile of shit was based on, but not anymore.

- something great to end this post:


The KORG Ds 10 has arrived in my home and its everything i wanted and feared it to be.
Its very complex and has a steep learning curve but is also a full fledged synthesizer for a very small prize.

Highly recommend for anyone wanting to try out some electronic music making.

office views

some notes:

- IN BRUGES has an OK story with good actors and a great soundtrack

- GOTHAM KNIGHT contains six storys nearly all of them are bad and the animation looks rushed. I still hate the fact that the japanese Animation studios are not able to blend 3d backgrounds with their 2d character work. It always looks weird and cheap.

- Thanks to the internet hype machine, i´ve reinstalled Diablo 2 and Quake 3.
I can´t wait for Quake Live or Diablo 3 (and i´m thankfull that QLive will be out in a shorter amount of time).
Slowly relearning all the maps and the timing of the red amor is fun!

instead of writing, i doodle

I´m currently writing a report on Robert Crumb for school and i kinda phased out and started doodling.

This thing was born:

Oh well..
I now know that Mr.Crumb really digs this music and that he actually said "no thanks!" to the opportunity to make an album cover for the Rolling Stones.
He was not fond of their work and didnt like the fact that they got all the girls.

Google Video has both documentarys about him online, great stuff for a lazy sunday afternoon.
-> The Confessions of Robert Crumb
-> CRUMB

faces and fun facts

Trying some new faces:


On the movie side of life:
- Cloverfield is all right but nothing special and the main guy (camera man) is annoying as fuck
- Gone Baby Gone is really good
- Saw Bullit again

Also: While trying to find out how old Steve McQueen was when he died, i stumbled over some fun things:
He nearly played:
- Dirty Harry
- The guy in Breakfast at Tiffany´s
- The lead in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS
- John RAMBO
yes.. JOHN RAMBO!

I had fun times imagining Mr. McQueen running through woods or saying "make my day!".

On that note.. Other THINGS THAT NEARLY happend:
- Kirk Douglas playing Col. Trautman in FIRST BLOOD
- Will Smith playing Neo (he turned the role down)
- Nicolas Cage playing Neo (also turned it down)

The last two are really funny if you try to imagine THE MATRIX with these both as the lead character.

a couple of things

The end of the semester draws closer (only one week left, yay) and im looking forward to having more time for the fun things in life...

Like playing the PLAYSTATION 2!

It only took the console 9 years to get into my home, but here it is and im glad!
There are alot of games i never really played on my own and i´m willing to try them all!
The rest of the world is torn between the 360 and the ps3 while i very much enjoy god of war 1.
Being late to the party has some advantages sometimes.

Also notable and loved:

- Michael Clayton
- The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

AND

new years art

This year is going to be great.
Everything will work out fine, the food will taste better,
people will smile at me and not want money,
all will get clearer and clearer and look like tiny raindrops in the sunshine.
2008 = AWESOME











ALSO

- listening to the the THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES OST (by Nick Cave)
- liked 3:10 Yuma more than Eastern Promises
- finally started writing

Movies

Ive nearly spend every day/night of this years holidays in the theater/in front of the tv at home.
Up until now, 13 Movies have been watched and ive still got two more days and enough chocolate to go some more rounds.

The list as it is now:
- Marie Antoinette (great soundtrack)
- Bad Santa (great lauren graham!)
- Mi3 (was better the first time in the theater, still fun though)
- I am legend (stupid ending, good first half, bad cgi)
- The Bourne Ultimatum (great editing and fight/stunt choreography)
- 30 days of night (good premise, stupid stupid STUPID vampires)
- ONCE (the most humble story about love and art ive seen in years)
- Children of men (made me like clive owen)
- Before the devil knows your dead (great acting by PS Hoffman and Hawke)
- Rocky Balboa (got everything right that was good about the first two, glad i got the dvd for christmas!)
- Sin City (still good the second time)
- Total Recall (have not watched it in years, i understand now why sharon stone was considered hot back then)
- No Country for old man (the best in this small list of films, going to watch it again as soon as possible)


Oh, i also went swimming this morning and was surprised at how hard it is to NOT drown.
I may stick to jogging.

WORK and QUICKNOTES

some WIP, some doodles and game related character work.







+ Quicknotes

Resident Evil 3, REALLY BAD.
Portal, best game of the year so far.
TF2, just hit the 10h mark.
Zelda PH, good but not great (needs more than just new controls).
looking forward to BEIRUT Live.

SUCK

The Moleskine of July has been filled, i´m thinking about doing some more comics
and i really (really really) want to play Resident Evil 4 again.





Worth your time:

oh you beautiful decay

updateupdateupdate.
got a new moleskine and another SB just for ink stuff and for messing around.
(sorry for the bad scans, had to do it at home with the crappy one)







other things of current interest:

MUSIC


BOOKS


MOVIES
awesome (if you can overlook that its pocahontas again)


allright, not much meat to it but its worth watching for the costume design alone
and boring


GAMES
replaying this one

and first time playing this one