Last night’s work, a classic pose/photograph of the absolutely stunning Raquel Welch for the film One Million Years B.C.
Never saw the film and can’t say I’m all that interested in doing so (cave men type films, even tongue in cheek ones, interest me very little), but the image of Ms. Welch is one that’s incredibly iconic to people in and around my age.
Let’s see if I have the time for another tonight!
So yesterday I posted a way too small image I made of Ash from the Ash vs. The Evil Dead show and, while it was near impossible to see the image to any great degree because of how small it was, I was encouraged by the results and wanted to experiment a little more on these types of things.
But, of course, with a larger image. Here is something I did yesterday:
So that’s the image in black and white and, after putting in a splash of color and lettering…
I’m having a lot of fun making these quick little “inking” exercises and, if I have the time, I’ll do a little more tonight.
We’ll see!
Back in 2014 and after a series of critical and box office duds, Keanu Reeves’ star appeared to be on the wane. The actor himself noted that after the failure of 2008’s The Day The Earth Stood Still remake, he was no longer viewed as a very in demand actor.
But things got considerably brighter for Mr. Reeves when, in 2014, he starred in the quirky, action-filled John Wick.
The film concerned a proverbial cliched bad ass hit man who had retired. When we first meet Mr. Wick, he’s morose. His wife, we find, has died of cancer but not before leaving him a puppy. One day, while going out, his flashy 1969 Mustang captures the eyes of some youthful thugs and they want to buy the car. Wick says no and, later that day, they assault his house, beat him up, kill his puppy, and steal his car.
The rest of the movie concerns Mr. Wick getting back at the ones who wronged him, who turned out to be the son of a powerful Russian mobster Mr. Wick has worked with before.
John Wick, in my opinion, was a good -if not quite great- action film filled with great stunts and at times brutal gun play. Keanu Reeves was quite good as the driven hit man who seeks justice. There were other interesting touches in the film, including a sense of some kind of hit man/gangster order, including a “safe haven” hotel in the middle of New York where the dregs of society can stay at and be safe and woe be it to anyone who creates any chaos in this safe haven.
As I said, I liked the film. In my original review of it (you can read it here), I said the following:
(John Wick) builds on and on, reaching its climax and conclusion and leaving at least me hoping to see more.
As the saying goes, beware of what you wish for.
Earlier this year John Wick: Chapter 2 was released to generally good reviews and positive fan reaction. At this moment and on this day, Rottentomatoes.com has the film scoring a damn good 89% positive among critics and a near equal 87% positive among audiences. This score, by the way, is slightly higher than the 85% positive among critics and 80% positive among audiences for the original John Wick.
And like my reaction versus everyone’s else to Guardians of the Galaxy, I can’t help but shake my damn head.
John Wick 2 is more… and more… and more of the same.
And after about a half hour of seeing what to my eyes was essentially the same gunfight pattern again and again (close quarter combat, shooting people in the head, flipping and fightin’, etc.), I was bored.
To tears.
The plot this time around concerns a marker mobster Santino D’Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio being at best only an “ok” slimeball) has on John Wick. Said marker entitles Santino to call in a favor from Wick and, while he refuses at first to do so, because of the hit man rules, Wick soon realizes he has to.
Them’s the breaks.
The favor Santino asks? He wants his sister killed. Seems his father recently passed away and willed her his power and seat at the prestigious “Table of 12”, a worldwide mobster power. Santino wants her out of the way so he can rule the clan and take that seat.
So after Wick realizes he has to do the job he heads to Italy and, eventually, gets down to business. He is then (surprise!) betrayed and gunfire, fights, CGI blood, close quarter shootouts, flips, punches, stabbings, etc. etc. yawn etc. etc. occur. Over and over and over and over again.
I honestly can’t think of another more action filled movie that bored me as much as this one did.
And I’m even more bewildered, as I was with the extremely positive reaction to Guardians of the Galaxy, as to why my opinion of this film is so at odds with the “mainstream”.
So for me, John Wick: Chapter 2 was a near total bust and, given I liked the first film, a big shame. However, given how much others seemed to like the film versus me, perhaps you should take my opinion with a proverbial grain of salt… it looks like I’m in the minority here.
Not to brag, but I finally broke down and picked up the new iPad and, with it, an Apple pencil.
To those who don’t know, I worked as an inker in comic books for a while back in the 1990’s and have always had an interest in improving my artwork. The problem was that getting to the drawing table, using the pencils and inks and rulers etc., then cleaning it all up, became something of a drag.
Which is why I was curious when Wacom started to come out with tablet writers and, now, with the new iPad, you have something similar. Here’s something I did last night (sorry for the very small size):
The size, alas, is what it is and I can’t do too much about it. I’ll have to work with “bigger” sized files/images and this, a 20 minute (if that) experiment, didn’t come out too bad though I am bummed it was made in such a small size (all my fault!).
Maybe tonight I’ll take on another iconic movie figure…
Word is that Daniel Craig, after apparently going through a living hell making the (IMHO) horrible movie Spectre, will return one more time to the role of James Bond…and according to Jacob Stolworthy at the Independent.com…
James Bond 25: Daniel Craig’s 007 return “secured”, Adele wanted for theme song
So the producers of the Bond films essentially are seeking a return of the “magic” found in Skyfall, which featured both Craig and Adele.
I’m…torn.
Truly.
I think Daniel Craig is a good actor and capable of good things. Hell, check him out in this trailer for the upcoming film Logan Lucky…
He’s certainly capable of good things but his biggest role to date, that of James Bond, has been, IMHO, ultimately…not good.
Like almost everyone else, I loved Casino Royale, Mr. Craig’s first appearance as the iconic character. However, what’s followed has been progressively worse. Quantum of Solace, which suffered due to a writer’s strike, was barely coherent as a movie, though it certainly looked good.
Skyfall was, similarly, a beautiful looking film and, when I saw it in theaters, I was very entertained. However, the film fell apart the moment you started to think about its story which, like Quantum, made absolutely no sense at all.
I’ve also made my feeling for Spectre known here, which I still feel is the absolute worst Bond film ever made.
Count ’em up and you’ve got the following: I really liked 1 Daniel Craig Bond film, think 1 was good while watching it but fell apart completely upon plot examination, and 2 which I thought were outright bad, with the last one being my nominee for worst Bond film of all time.
1 out of 4 ain’t good.
I suppose the end result depends on who they get to write the movie’s script and who directs it. If someone like Christopher Nolan gets tagged to direct the film, it could be interesting…though I feel as good as Mr. Nolan is his action scenes aren’t always the best.
James Cameron in his prime would make any Bond film a must see, but I seriously doubt they’ll get him and, frankly, I can’t help but feel he’s a little past his prime.
There are plenty of other possibilities and, provided the movie’s makers deliver a coherent plot (how about that?!) filled with thrills and chills, I suppose it could work.
As a fan of James Bond, I hope it works.
But the recent track record suggests I should keep my expectations, sadly, low.
Was in an artistic mood and came up with…
If you’ve read my Corrosive Knights novels, you should have an idea what this is all about.
Not intended to be a cover or anything specific, just a quick artistic representation of something found in the novels.
By the way, the current Corrosive Knights novel, #7, is clocking in at 103,000 words and humming along nicely, though there’s still plenty left to do before I get to the next draft.
Before I did the above image, I decided to create what I hoped would be a “rough” cover for Book #7. Incredibly, things came together nice and very quickly. So nice, in fact, that I may well use this supposed “rough” cover for the real thing when the book is done.
The beauty of having it done so early on is that it gives me time to put it away and not think about it. When it gets closer to the time to start putting the novel together for release, I’ll hopefully see the artwork “fresh” and determine if indeed it is worth using as my cover.
When the day nears I’ll show it off. Even if I wind up not using it, I’ll certainly show it off! 😉
It’s looking more and more like we’ll be moving from combustion engines toward electric vehicles -and, I suppose, self-driving vehicles- in the very near future.
This article by Brian Khan and for Salon.com notes…
The world is on the brink of an electric car revolution
The two biggest factors are: 1) Tesla is about to release to the general public their highly anticipated, and low cost, Model 3 (retail is around $35,000), and 2) Volvo has stated that by 2019, a mere two years from now, all the cars they release will be electric in one form or another (ie hybrid, electric, or any combination of the above).
As for me, I’m currently very happy with my car but I’m hoping that when the time comes to get my next vehicle, it might just be the Tesla Model 3.
Handsome car, IMHO!
Fascinating times we live in!
Yesterday was a big day for news regarding long-time lost aviator Amelia Earhart. For those who aren’t aware of who she is, she was an aviator who achieved great acclaim during an era when flying was just (ahem) taking off. In 1937 she and navigator Fred Noonan embarked on what would have been the first attempt by a woman to circumnavigate the world.
However, while flying over the Pacific ocean and near the Marshal Islands and with fuel running low, a series of distress signals were sent out and Ms. Earhart, Mr. Noonan, and their airplane were never seen again.
What happened to them, to this day, remains a mystery.
But yesterday it was announced a new History Channel special will focus on this mystery and, the big “new” piece of information the special is offering is a photograph which the show’s people claim displays both Earhart and Noonan on a dock in a Pacific Island after they crash landed and following them declared “missing”.
The photograph:
Not all that interesting, until you zoom in on two of the people near the end of the dock…
The show’s principles claim the man on the left is Noonan and the figure seated and looking off to the right is Amelia Earhart and, according to their claims, this has been at least potentially validated through the use of photographic analysis (by the way, the article where I got these photographs is by Paige Levin and Eric Levinson and found on CNN.com You can read the entire article here).
So here’s the deal: At the time of Earhart’s disappearance, things were getting worse between Japan and the U.S., so there is a theory that maybe Earhart and Noonan crash landed in the Pacific, were picked up by Japanese naval forces, and eventually were imprisoned and died…perhaps being executed as spies for the U.S. government.
The above photograph, reportedly taken surreptitiously by a U.S. contact who eventually was executed as a spy by the Japanese, most certainly could be proof of the survival of Earhart and Noonan and the fact that it was held in a “top secret” folder for many years seems to indicate that it was viewed as something important.
However, I suspect it was important not because of the vague figures on it but rather the Japanese vessel in the background. I suspect that was what the photographer wanted to get, to give U.S. intelligence an idea of where Japanese vessels were rather than take a very hard to see picture of two lost aviators.
On the other hand, the photographic analysis appears to be interesting, even if the photo itself, when blown up, presents only blurry images of the people within.
Still, a fascinating thing to see and discuss, even if I do believe this is far from a slam dunk revelation.
The below video, from the Today show, gives a bit more information on the photograph and how it was determined the two within it could be the lost aviators…
1/1/17 UPDATE!
Over at Gizmodo.com Matt Novak offers this article which claims…
Experts cast doubt on that new photo alleged to show Amelia Earhart
The main gist of the article, for those who aren’t interested in following the link (but you should, it presents some neat photos of the actual photograph!), is that there is a big question as to when the photograph stirring up all this intrigue was taken.
The fact of the matter is that its unknown when it was taken. The History Channel people claim it was taken in 1937, which would be in/around the time of Ms. Earhart’s disappearance, but it was noted by the National Archives there is no date on the photograph and its description doesn’t give any indication of when it might have been taken.
It is possible the photograph was taken in 1940, which of course would damage the claims it shows Ms. Earhart.
As I said before, I’m a skeptic of this. It just seems a little too… lucky to have such a picture suddenly appear and show not only Earhart but her Mr. Noonan.
I heard good things about The Void since last year and most likely around the time it was originally released. Word was this was a film that evoked the works of John Carpenter and H. P. Lovecraft and that sort of stuff is most surely in my wheelhouse.
Here’s the movie’s trailer: Not too bad looking and some of the other reviews presented within that trailer are pretty strong, no?
Alas…
Look, I didn’t hate the film. It was pretty well done and the acting, while not always uniformly great by all participants -nor terrible, it should be noted- nonetheless presented some very good practical (gore) effects.
But the story…jeeze.
A number of years ago I went to a local -and relatively small- Czech club for an event. The highlight of the event was a Czech band that emulated and performed -quite excellently- early Beatles music. The four members of the band looked uncannily like John, Paul, George, and Ringo during their earlier years, complete with mop tops and dressed in dark suits ala Hard Day’s Night. As I said before, their performance was excellent and their voices and use of musical instruments were incredibly near to what The Beatles did back in their earlier years.
So good were they that I wondered why they hadn’t tried to do their own music instead of covering The Beatles so damn well.
Watching The Void was sorta/kinda like watching those pseudo-Beatles.
The Void cribs (or, if you’re less tolerant, rips off) the general plot/set-up of John Carpenter’s first big hit, Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), mixes it with some of the monster effects of his 1982 classic The Thing, features a conclusion that is awfully similar to the conclusion of his 1987 film Prince Of Darkness, while also featuring a villain/cult and an alternate world setting which, once it shows up, feels an awful lot like stuff found in Clive Barker films like 1987’s Hellraiser.
Of course, John Carpenter was inspired by other works as well. So too Clive Barker. They both clearly love the works of H. P. Lovecraft and there are elements of it in their works. In the case of John Carpenter, one can argue Assault on Precinct 13 itself was inspired by such “siege” films as the original Night of the Living Dead or Gunga Din.
The thing is that at least John Carpenter and Clive Barker took those inspirations and created something interesting and clever in its own way, the same of which cannot be said of The Void. Too much was taken directly from these listed works and little new was added to the mix.
Having said that, the movie’s first 20 or so minutes are easily its best.
The Void starts with a genuinely creepy and horrifying shoot up in a home in the woods in the dead of the night. We have a weird father/son (Daniel Fathers, Mik Byskov) pair shoot up said home and quite nastily murder one of its occupants, a fleeing woman. However, a young man also manages to get away and, later that night, is spotted by deputy Daniel Carter (Aaron Poole).
The man is near hysterical and unresponsive when Carter finds him. He takes the man to the nearest hospital which happens to be where his wife Allison (Kathleen Munroe) works. We quickly find that things aren’t the greatest between husband and wife. The hospital, like the previously mentioned Precinct 13, is lightly staffed and has only two patients, a very pregnant woman in the outpatient waiting area accompanied by her father (or was it grandfather? I’m not certain), and a young man who is spending the night in a hospital bed.
To make a long story short, the small group soon finds they’re under siege by what appear to be cultists (again, very much like Precinct 13), while within the hospital eerie secrets are eventually revealed and corpses tend to not stay still.
In sum, The Void is a well made film with good acting and effects which, unfortunately, features a story that to this viewer relied a little -hell, too much– on other movies without bringing enough of its own interesting new material to the table, which is a shame.
Therefore it is difficult for me to recommend The Void unless you’re willing to ignore the way it takes from so many other, better films.
So, if you’re in the mood for some creepy thrills, rather than checking out The Void you may want to catch the films I’ve listed above and, especially, these three whose trailers I present below…
Thankfully, its starting to go away but over the past two to three days I’ve been infected with the most malicious of viruses: An earworm.
What’s an earworm?
From Dictionary.com:
Earworm: a tune or part of a song that repeats in one’s mind.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, an earworm is when a song gets “stuck” in your head and parts of said song repeat over and over and over and over again until you’re ready to pull a drill out of your toolbox and…
…ahem…
I’ve had earworms before. I’m sure most everyone has.
In my case, the latest earworm I’ve struggled with was The Beatles’ Martha My Dear, from their White Album.
Here’s a very early demo of the song…
What’s weird about this is that, frankly, of all the Beatles songs out there, its one that I’ve never really given all that much thought to. It’s a nice song, mind you, a cheerful Paul McCartney tune dedicated (yep) to his dog Martha and its a nice piece but hardly one of the most memorable of songs.
And yet the other day, when I was tuning in to the various Sirius stations I stopped at their Beatles one and the host talked about this song and how he knew Martha (the dog) and here’s the song…
…and it played and stuck in my head ever since.
Best way to combat an earworm is to try to overlap/drown it out with another song. In my case, I chose something far more bombastic…
With my luck, I’ll have this song be my latest earworm…