ghost world

you might be wondering. well, Ghost World is not a horror movie. nor a corny romantic chick flick, and... its not one of those laugh out loud comedies that you just watch and forget (not that those are not good, but it's just not one of those). i stumbled upon this movie when searching more about American Splendor (previous movie post) in this spanish movie review website called "Movies 4 Indies". (however after browsing thru, i found that it also features some mainstream hollywood movies like Terminator Salvation and Sherlock Holmes and hmmm.. Alice in Wonderland- well, cant say i didnt enjoy them, but.. they aren't Indie!)

The story is about two best friends, Enid and Rebecca, who just finished their high school. Enid is the main character, who is impulsive, cynical and bitter, she seems to know what she doesnt want, but doesnt know what she want in life. Although she is more outspoken than Rebecca, she is quite lost with her life. Rebecca, Enid's best friend, is more passive and naive than Enid. She has a more mainstream personality but eventually matures into a sensible young woman.

this movie left me with some thoughts. is fitting-in and growing-up more important than finding what we want and saying "no" to what we dont want? the beauty of this movie is that it doesnt show which is "correct" or "right" in the end. it's all so subjective and personal...

enjoy the movie!
trailer of the movie :)

the comic strip

Luzinterruptus.

Discovered this amazing street art in Hookedblog (another blog mostly about street art).

Back to the point, the art posted is very magnificent, which held in Booklyn. If not mistaken they used about 800 books with lighting to do this.


And I kinda like this interpretation by another blog titled Rebellion:

"How powerful are books? Well they can apparently stop traffic if there's enough of them. "

And this impressive work is done by Luzinterruptus team.
There is the link to their blog but too bad it's not in English. Anyways, from my observation, their works are mostly done based on the lighting.
Anyways, there are more pictures in their blog and I have copied some of their photos from their blog, another series which attracts me, as shown below:







For more, please visit their blog :) and google them for English explanation. lol.

Enjoy!

American Splendor

When comics were all about fantasies, heroes, adventure and action, Harvey Pekar chose to write about his own life. "Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff" he said.

Harvey Pekar is an underground comic book writer wrote about his own life. American Splendor was the title of his comic book. He described it as "an autobiography written as it's happening. The theme is about staying alive. Getting a job, finding a mate, having a place to live, finding a creative outlet. Life is a war attrition. You have to stay active in all fronts. It's one thing after another. I've tried to control a chaotic universe. And it's a losing battle. But I can't let go. I've tried but I can't."

Harvey Pekar couldnt "even draw a straight line". So he wrote his stories and asked other artists to draw them for him. and therefore, he has many comic versions of him.

"Harvey let his readers know he had so many issues; he was anxious, obsessive, pessimistic. But one issue he never had was self-conciousness; he was 100 percent himself. Harvey was Harvey unrepentantly, and this relentlessly being himself inspired others consicously and unconsioucly, even when he exposed his foibles and fuck-ups or especially when doing just that, to be more themselves."

- from the Pekar Project, Long Live Harvey Pekar.

Harvey Pekar was inspiring and loved by alot of people, especially artists that worked with him. Here's one of his tributes by Garry Sharman, an artist who got commisssioned to illustrate Pekar's stories. More can be found on Pekar Project, a site that features works of Pekar and a team of artists.

Harvey worked as a hospital clerk until his retirement. He died last monday, 12th of July 2010. I just got to know him and his works. How he lived his life with ups and downs, and found his own creative outlet and do his art his own way.

American Splendor, a movie based on his comics. A truly lovely movie about a not-so-lovely man.

Rest In Peace, Mr Harvey Pekar.

I Love You Phillip Morris

Jim Carrey, after the very famous movie, the Mask, he gives people the impression that he is good in comedy movies. Indeed, he is.
However, I think, instead of pure comedy, he also keen on those based-on-true-story-movies.

After the movie Yes Man where he acts as a man whose life is changed totally when he say ‘yes!' to everything. A pretty interesting movie, although there is nothing very special about the shooting style, I do think that movie teaches people something.
Anyways, back to the point, he then now also acted in another movie titled I Love You Phillip Morris, which is also a true story. The story itself is very unbelievable. Jim Carrey carries the character with his sense of humour, I can really be attracted by his expressions. Some scenes are quite ironic and funny.
If you're looking for something light, this would be the one I would introduce.
However, this movie did not really provide big great life lesson or inspiration, if it did then I think it would be love is the greatest thing which is able to provide powerful strength to a person to do anything crazy! lol.
And this makes me think of a quote which is good to end this post:
"I have loved to the point of madness; that which is called madness, that which to me, is the only sensible way to love." by Francoise Sagan.

姚仁禄教授创意讲座

a friend of mine shared these wonderful and inspiring clips with me,
thought you will be interested and enjoy his lectures too!

姚仁禄教授 has a series of lectures, here are some of them :)

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTc1OTM1NzMy.html

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTY0NDI3NDUy.html


he uses TED talks extensively in his lectures, and shares his ideas, opinions, and stories with the his students, who are majority of them in the design field. :)

Sebastiaan Bremer

loving these whimsical, happy and nostalgic images by Sebastiaan Bremer.
enjoy~!

“Using various inks, he draws directly on slightly blurry C-print enlargements of photographs, and often adds splotches and streaks of photographic dye. Almost always, the underlying photographic images have much to do with personal and family history: a best friend from Bremers teenage years, a shot of himself as a kid, a view of a room taken from under his grandmothers piano, his family on vaction, a former girlfriend.”

500 Days of Summer

If I must only say one phrase for this movie, it would be... "Please watch it."




As seen in the poster, it is a story about love.
Having a very complicated feeling after the movie but I won't spoil the movie by telling the synopsis, which I hate people doing that, so please watch it.
However, I would say, the method of shooting the film is quite interesting and it is not boring at all as compared to other romance movies although the storyline couldn't gone too far. What do you expect in romance movies except relationships, though?

So, enjoy it :)