Now That's The Spirit

I've been following the Spirit marketing for a while now and wrote a column about it a while ago, click here. Up until today I've been underwhelmed by a lot of what I've seen and the trailer looked okay until Samuel L. Jackson started looking like a drag queen. At that point it became a mess and I feel sorry for all that are involved. It's a shame because I like Frank Miller, he's a great artist and his stories are fun. But I think in this case he's been given too much freedom and it's looking like crapola!

So today I ran across an interesting article and a great piece of art from the Art Institute of California-San Diego. Apparently Frank Miller and the marketers have teamed up with the Art Institute to do a nine piece series of the Spirit done by the students. Talk about fresh and creative!

Take a look at the first poster! I love the combination of Saul Bass and grit. It's eclectic, uneven and it feels amateur. I love it, for better or worse these students are going to put out posters that are going to be something we haven't seen in quite some time. They'll be either truly original; skewed slightly differently somehow; or all the above. Whatever they'll be they won't be the norm and perhaps that's what the Spirit needs.

Franz Kafka's Unmasking a Confidence Trickster

I recently ran across Franz Kafka's book on short stories. So far I've loved every minute of them. They range from the bizarre to the mind blowing, all of them though are treasures. If you ever have some time to kill in a book store or library, go and read Metamorphosis or Penal Colony, you'll be rewarded.

As I was thinking about my blog I began to think that Unmasking a Confidence Trickster might be a good short story (10min) that you'll enjoy. It touches on a certain basic emotion that we all have and deal with daily. Enjoy.

Finally, at ten at night, and in the company of a man I had vaguely known some time ago, who had unexpectedly button-holed me and dragged me round the streets for a good two hours, I reached the large house where I had been asked to party.

"There" I said, and clapped my hands to indicate the absolute necessity of the parting of the ways. I had already made several less energetic efforts, and was feeling quite tired.

"Are you going up right away?" he asked. I thought I heard the teeth knocking together in his mouth.

"Yes."

I had an invitation, I had told him as much right away. I had been invited, furthermore, to come up, where I would have liked to have been for some time already, not standing around outside the gate gazing past the ears of the interlocutor. And now to lapse into silence with him too, as if we had decided on a long stay in just this spot. A silence to which the houses round about and the darkness that extended as far as the stars, all made their contribution. And the footfalls of the unseen pedestrians, whose errands one did not guess at, the wind that kept pressing against the opposite side of the street, a gramophone that was singing against the sealed windows of one of the rooms somewhere - they all came to prominence in this silence, as though it belonged and had always belonged to them.

And my companion submitted to this on his own behalf, and - after a smile - on mine too, stretched his right arm up along the wall, and, closing his eyes, learned his face against it.

But I didn't quite get to the bottom of the smile, because shame suddenly compelled me to turn away. It was only from that smile that I had understood that here was nothing more or less than a confidence trickster. And there was I, having lived in this town for months, and thinking I knew these confidence tricksters through and through, the way that at night they emerge from the sidestreets, with their hands unctuously extended like mine host, the way they loiter round the advertising billboards we are studying, as if playing hide-and-seek, and peep out with at least one eye from behind the curve of the pillar, the way they suddenly materialize in front of us on the edge of the pavement at busy crossings when we are feeling frightened. I understand them so well, they had been the first people I'd met in the city, in little pubs, and I owe them my first glimpse of an obduracy that I have begun to feel myself. The way they continued to confront one, even long after one had escaped them, when there was no more confidence to trick! The way they refused to sit down, refused to fall over, but continued to look convincing! And their methods were always the same too: they stood in front of us, making themselves as large as they could; tried to divert us from where we were headed; offered us instead a habitation in their own bosom, and, when in the end a feeling welled up in us, they took it as and embrace into which threw themselves, always face first.

These old ruses I now detected for the first time after so long in the man's company. I rubbed my fingers together, to make it appear the disgrace had never happened.

My man, though, was still leaning as before against the wall, still thinking he was a confidence trickster, and his contentment with his role mantled the one cheek of his that I could see.

"Fuck it!" I said, and tapped him lightly in the shoulder. Then I hurried up the steps, and the unreasonably devoted faces of the servants in the entrance hall were as welcome to me as some delightful surprise. I looked along the line of them, while my coat was taken off, and the dust rubbed from my boots. Then, taking a deep breath and drawing myself up to my full height, I entered the hall.

If you want to learn all there is to know about Franz Kafka, click here.

Lissa Gerrard Will Set You Free

Last weekend my darling bride to be and I decided to take a Sunday siesta. We have been going going for a while now and we wanted to watch tv and zone out for a day. While we watched tv one of the movies that was on had a brilliant score and it really moved me. It was Denzel Washington's Man On Fire and it's music was very profound. I had heard it before during Black Hawk Down and I was determined to figure out who it was. The song was sung by Lissa Gerrard and her stuff is quite incredible.

Lissa first became known for the work she did on the movie Gladiator. Do you remember that breathtaking moment where you see Rome for the first time with all it's amazement. Well during that scene the music is massive like angels are singing. That was Lissa's work and since then she's won tons of awards and done many a soundtrack to a movie.

Check out her site here and to listen to her some of her most famous pieces click here or type in Lissa Gerrard in the itunes search box. Choose The Best of Lissa Gerrard album and click on Now We Are Free.

Simply Red

Bravo, bravo! Talk about an eye caching visual. The use of the red, the way it's shot and choreographed, brilliant. I especially love the it was shot, the use of the shadows and the metallic glow in the skin, very cool.

My only fear is that the style looks similar to 300 and I hope this isn't a copycat of that. But aside from that I think both posters capture a very cool look reimagining to a not so very interesting character...bravo!

Ridley Scott's Body of Lies

Ridley Scott, Russel Crowe and Leanardo Dicaprio bring us Body of Lies. Check out the trailer below.

Wanted: Timur Bekmambetov

I recently watched Timur Bekmambetov new movie "Wanted" staring James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman. All I can say about the movie is that it's an movie of epic eye candy that never takes itself to seriously.

So I was looking online to see if there was going to be a sequel to Wanted or any of his other amazing films Night Watch or Day Watch and ran across this viral video that apparently Timur Bekmambetov created.


http://view.break.com/513310 - Watch more free videos

If you've seen the movie it makes sense because it's all about breaking away from the chains of routine and finding meaning in your life. In the film James McAvoy does let loose in a generic office. But he mostly speaks his mind to his boss and busts up his coworker who's screwing his girlfriend. So the movie differs greatly to the video above.

The video was obviously released to create buzz and do a "holy crap do you see what this guy does in an office". At first I think it's really funny but it does go on for awhile and become a little too Fight Club'ish for me. The movie never takes itself too seriously which I appreciated and asks the audience to step outside themselves which I liked. This video goes a little further which according to Timur Bekmambetov blog (in Russian) is what he wanted.

He stated that the viral video was a stunt for the movie and it was his way of laughing at "gullibility of the West", what? I guess I'm gullible because it looks so freakin' real, why wouldn't I believe that it's real? Which makes you wonder: is this a typical outsiders view on america, gullible? Or is this Timur Bekmambetov's own perverted view of the US? This video and comment of "gullibility of the West" seems to me as his way of showcasing himself. I don't know if this viral video made it to the US and created buzz. But personally, I think the nature of the video turns me off because it's false. America isn't routine like Stalinist Russia was. He is taking his own culture and applying it on us. Which I think is a backlash of the Matrix films that did so well around the world. America is the opposite, it's bright lights big city, it's constant overwhelming eye candy and people aren't in a routine, they are constantly changing their minds and looking behind the curtain. Look at the stats on divorcing; babies being born; national debt or even forclosure's. We are a culture of excess because we are never happy with what we have.

So Mr. Bekmambetov's, I'd say your little video without realizing it is actually your own commentary on the routine of the East. Perhaps you should take look back home before you make social comments about our eye candy corner of the world.