Miscellaneous

It’s been a while since I sat down to watch a movie. The last one I saw was “Juno” back in November or December, and I didn’t feel like I got my $10 worth on that. Recently, I had the chance to watch TWO movies this week. So this will be my first post on movies.

ONCE

I had a friend lend me a copy of this movie about a couple months ago. At the time I wasn’t in the mood to watch a movie by myself. Maybe it was because I felt that sitting down and watching TV was a waste of time. But this last Sunday, after a long day of activities, I wanted to do something that didn’t involved drawing, housework, or guitar.

I initially had reservations about this movie. I thought it was going to be one of those cheesy tales of Guitar Man who meets Attractive European Piano Lady and together make feel-good pop music while they experience the predictable sexual tension. Well, after watching it, I have to conclude that it was a cheesy tale of Guitar Man who meets Attractive European Piano Lady and together make feel-good pop music while they experience the predictable sexual tension.

But I have to say that I really enjoyed the movie.

In my mind, I was comparing it to another music-themed film I saw last year (“Music and Lyrics,” it was on an airplane ride and I was bored, ok?). But unlike that film (my reaction to that one was, “eh”), I didn’t get a headache from any annoying jokes, stereotypical sidekicks, or forced performances from big-name actors trying to be musicians. Instead, we got the opposite, with Glen Hansard of the Frames cast as the role of Man (that’s what the credits say). The film’s produced on a fairly low budget, and the music is actually not that bad (won something called an “Oscar” for Best Song). You could probably sit through the movie with your eyes closed and listen to the whole thing if you wanted to. It’s nice to see someone make a decent movie without using A-list actors and a humungo budget. It’s not a great film, but it’s definitely an entertaining film.

A couple days later, I felt like watching another movie I got as a birthday gift (see what you started, Carol?!).

TEKKONKINKREET

I know, that was my reaction when I first read it. I still can’t pronounce it. It’s supposed to be a pun on “Tekkin concrete” whatever that means.

And there’s that boy in the upper left with the gloves and the weird animal hat. During the first few minutes of the movie, I was trying to figure out if that boy was a boy. I mean, I know if a kid wore something like that to school, he wouldn’t make it past lunch (he is a boy, by the way). With the crazy characters and the crazy title, I knew I was going to enjoy this one.

So what did I think of this one?

I dunno. I’m still trying to figure this one out. It was entertaining, but it reminded me a lot of Steamboy, Metropolis, Paprika, and Appleseed: they all had lots of eye candy and attention to detail, with a fantastic destructive ending. This one wasn’t nearly as crazy as the ones before, but sometimes I found myself scratching my head at what was going on. I like it… I just need another run at this to see if I can figure out the story.

While we’re talking about media, I just picked up a couple new albums.

ARCADE FIRE – Neon Bible

I was a little skeptical about whether the men and women from Montreal could repeat the success of “Funeral.” After one listen though, they came pretty close. I kind of miss the raw feel that came with their first two albums, but maybe that will wear off after a few more listens. A couple songs (“Black Mirror, The Well…, No Cars Go,” and second half of “Bad Vibrations…”) sound pretty similar in format to last album’s “Rebellion.” But the songs still pack a punch. I didn’t listen to this one before the last music post, but this one would have made it near the top of my list for 2007.

SLOAN – Never Hear the End of It

Another Oh Canada band. Look at the faces on these bad boys, don’t mess with them. And with that menacing pink background, you know they mean business. Don’t get on their bad side or they’ll fill your underwear with maple syrup before the impending atomic wedgie… while singing… (it’s getting late, gimme a break…) All kidding aside, I first heard about these guys while listening to someone else’s playlist. It’s not a bad deal for the price. There’s 30 songs on this thing! Anyways, imagine if you took the last portion of “Abbey Road” and made a full album out of it. It’s not anything groundbreaking, but it’s fun and not as annoying as a lot of other mainstream “music” on the airwaves these days.

Some of were you asking me about my fireplace.

Here it is…

Thanks everyone for coming out to the birthday weekend. I have to say that I truly feel blessed and amazed for having met so many great people since I moved to Seattle. Honestly, I didn’t feel like having a party, but good friends don’t keep you for having a good time. A big thanks to the following: to Waiki for getting the ball rolling and organizing the crazy mess; to Andrew for opening his house to the madness; to Derek, Scottie, and Glenda for the “mystery cake and donettes” on my front door; to Lisa for staying up and baking loads of cupcakes; to Carol and Darwin for their encouragement and inspiration; to Maurice and Pascal for the Buddha bowl that became the life of the party; and finally, to Olwen, Dave, and Waiki, who, in traditional Canadian fashion, put the icing on the cake. And by “icing,” I mean a plate of whipped cream, and by “cake,” I mean my head. Thanks guys, I had a blast!

I gawt happy-birthdayed…

Yes. Today is my birthday. And what’s a blog without a birthday entry? There are no pictures with this one, but it is something worth writing about.

A lot has gone on since my last entry. I’ve been getting weary at times with juggling work, work after work, cleaning up the place and stuff going on outside of work and work after work. I even got tired at times when I wasn’t doing much of anything.

This last Tuesday, I decided to go part-time at my current job to focus on my art career. I wish I could spell this out more eloquently, but news is news no matter how well written it is. I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to pursue art and animation, but I was always too chicken to make a run at it for fear of not being able to support myself. But the anxiety of not being able to use my God-given talents and the lack of joy from my current job began to weigh on me. The issue became not money, but trust. Do I really listen when I’m told to “not worry about [my] life?” Can I trust that the Great Shepherd will take care of His flock? For some, this may sound like recklessness, but for me, it’s logical. If I’m serious about my pursuit of art and animation, I need to do it sooner or later. At this stage in life, sooner seems like a good time.

The rest of the year is going to get interesting as there will be a lot of growth , penny-pinching, and hard work ahead. I won’t say that I’ll be successful, and I don’t know how good (or bad) I will get, but at least I can say that would’ve tried. Anyways, I hope 26 turns out to be a good year.

Happy New Year, everybody!!! Boy, does it feel good to start the new year on a fresh note! I love this time of year where you can start new goals on a clean slate. But Nolen, you say, it’s the last day of January, New Years is over. Oh, I guess it is. Well, I’ll still have a post in January. How come you haven’t posted in a while? Uh… I’ve been busy. For a whole month??? Um… yes… but I had a lot going… GET BACK TO WORK, SLACKER!!!

Alright, alright, alright!!!

Here’s the update, folks:

I’ve been in the process of cleaning up my place. It’s mostly the little things like patching up unpainted areas, spackling holes, and repainting the tile around my fireplace… actually, it’s mostly painting the fireplace tile… no, it’s more like repainting the tile and then finding out that the contractor had used crummy spray paint around the fireplace. Since he used non-high heat spray paint, the stuff just bubbles and peels off whenever I light a warm, romantic fire… um… for one, of course…

No problem, I said, I could just sand it down and spray paint it again. But the more I painted, the more of the existing paint came off. And it’s not like the tile underneath looked that great either. So after thinking it over for a little bit, I made the next reasonable choice…

I WENT A’SMASHIN’!!!

[ahem]

After I was through taking a crowbar to the tile, I realized later at Home Depot that not many places carried 8″ tile, which is what was used all around the fireplace. Good work, smart guy! Hey now, I can figure this out. This little project is still in progress. Hopefully I can finish it up in the next couple weeks.

Things have been going well at the studio. Unfortunately, things were a little busy over at my current job, which took time away from the studio. This week has settled down a bit, so I should be getting more sketch time. I currently have a project that I’m working on. The reason there’s been a lack of art posts is that what I’m working on is proprietary information, so I need to ask my supervisors if I can post certain works. I’m pretty sure when it winds down, I can post the leftovers. I’ll try to fit in time to post up some of my own artwork here and there. I’m also thinking about starting a little comic if time permits. I probably lost most of my readers by dropping off for a month. Hopefully I can get this blog back up and running again.

Anyways, what’s a post without a sketch? It’s not much, and again, I can’t post everything up just yet. I’ll have more coming this year.

 

[Update: Technically, it’s still January 31st on the west coast, but for some reason the timestamp says it’s February already.¬† So I didn’t miss out entirely on January, but technically I did… um… yeah…]