Maxwell Holyoke-Hirsch

Thanks to one of my favorite blogs, I recently discovered the work of illustrator Maxwell Holyoke-Hirsch. I love the vibrant colors and the crisp/sharp lines of the piece for GOOD Magazine:

I also really like his character design:

Not only do I enjoy the work of Maxwell Holyoke-Hirsch but the process journal on his blog which is simply a stream of images is quite intriguing.

Vintage Photo Contest

If you are not following the vintage photo contest over on The Sartorialist, than you are seriously missing out. I am amazed at the quality of the photos being posted. When coupled with the background stories provided by the submitters, these photos are simply fascinating.

The Other Guys Motion Poster

I have always been a sucker for a good piece of marketing. That is probably why I thouroghly enjoyed the new "motion poster" for The Other Guys - the latest entry to the excellent buddy cop film genre.

**UPDATE**

I may not know what riding dirty is but I do know that I don't like hearing it on continuous loop. As such, I took the motion poster down but it can still be seen in all of its glory here.

**END UPDATE**

On a technical note, I love the idea behind a "motion poster" when executed correctly. This is advertising being a little bit innovative and taking advantage of the benefits inherently available in the advertising medium known as the internets. It's kind of like Harry Potter come to life.

Istanbul

I spent last weekend in Istanbul in honor of a friend's completion of The Jesus Year. It was so surreal walking around the sleeping city well after midnight. I felt like I was caught up in a Cold War era spy film come to life.

As always, the photos can be found on the Flickr.

Academy Awards.... Bleh.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed The Hurt Locker. I thought the individual bomb diffusing scenes were very well done. I really enjoyed Jeremy Renner's performance. However, never once did I say to myself while watching- Self, this movie is pretty amazing. I wouldn't be surprised if it was nominated for Best Picture. So needless to say, I was surprised when it was nominated for Best Picture this year. I was even more surprised when it actually won.

Like I said before, I really enjoyed The Hurt Locker. However, this "victory" is just one more example of why I don't like the Academy Awards. I don't like how so many people's careers are made and broken by the political fancies and whims of people who may or may not have watched the films they are voting on. Nikki Finke summed up my feelings perfectly when she said the following:

So David slew Goliath. Or, to put it another way, Academy voters rewarded a tiny film that made no money just because almost everyone in Hollywood really dislikes James Cameron. This shows how out of touch the Oscars are with moviegoers around the world, who loved Avatar. But what can you expect from a bunch of mostly geriatrics who decide on the Best Picture by watching them on small screens instead of in the movie theater. Most of the 5,000+ voters only saw Avatar in 2D. So, of course, The Hurt Locker played better. And people wonder why I have nothing but contempt for the Academy?

Oh, and remember that the Academy wouldn't even let Nicolas Chartier who financed Hurt Locker (or his mother who flew in from France) attend the show tonight because he mass-emailed members and supposedly broke the campaigning rules -- even though he never even mentioned Avatar by name. That guy has to celebrate at a private party in Malibu tonight away from all the Industry accolades he so richly deserves. And people still wonder why I have nothing but contempt for the Academy?

Lebron Don't Fake The Funk On The Nasty Dunk

Lebron's dunk at approximately the 59 second mark of the highlights from last night's Cavs game against the Knicks was straight nasty. Seriously, he is not from this planet.

Lost Thoughts

So here is where I am at with the final season of Lost. I have really enjoyed the final season so far. I was worried that everything would feel rushed, as if I was drinking from a fire hose. It hasn't felt like that yet and I am happy. The methodical pacing has always been one of my favorite things about Lost and so far they haven't departed from that formula.

But what I really want to talk about now is an internal change that kind of caught me by surprised. For me, Lost has always been first and foremost about the characters. The mythology of the island has always come in second. Albeit a very close second. In previous seasons I would rush to the internets after watching an episode and spend hours scrolling through various recaps and message boards to gather little "bits and bobs" that would give me more insight into what the island was, or who the Dharma Initiative was, etc. I revelled in the mystery and loved to investigate the various theories and discover little easter eggs and peruse all the different screen shots to ensure that I didn't miss anything.

Now, I can't be bothered. It's not that my love for the show has diminished. It hasn't. At all. The first thing I do when I wake up on Wednesday morning is start the download of the the episode that just aired in the US a couple of hours before. I purposefully avoid many of my regular websites throughout the day to ensure that I don't catch any spoilers. I rush home from work and immediately watch the episode. So yeah, my passion has not declined. But when it comes to the mythology of the island, I don't really care anymore. I don't care what the island is. I don't care why it seems to have magical powers. I don't care what the smoke monster is. All I care about is the characters and their individual searches for redemption/happiness/meaning/love.

I think that is why I have enjoyed the last two episodes so much. I loved watching Locke in the sideways flash reality seemingly overcome many of the issues that have haunted him in the island reality. It was so enjoyable to watch Jack establish a meaningful bond with his son in his sideways flash reality and move beyond the troubled relationship he had with his own father. What I am saying is that for me personally, watching these characters succeed and evolve is providing enough satisfaction that the island and its mysteries are only important to me in the sense that they serve as the setting and backdrop where the stories of these characters play out.

Ultimately, I will be satisfied if many of the mysteries of the island go unexplained. This is blasphemy to many. I know. This is where I am at though. This is how much the characters have come to mean to me.

As a side note, there was an interesting explanation of the multiverse idea given by Marc Oronmaner at docarzt.com. If you disregard the portion about The Secret and focus on the video game analogy, it does a great job of shedding some light on the current season.