Monday, March 19, 2012
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Mr. Tin, Mrs. Snow and Mr. Apfel
Drawings for this assignment: A minimum two-page comic story starring yourself, a snowman, a robot, and a piece of fruit, with one character that speaks a language other than English (real, imagined, or pictorial).
Cartoonists are like that
I got accepted to The Center for Cartoon Studies! Below is the essay that was part of my application.
******
‘Are you taking your drawing pens’,
my boyfriend asked me, as I was packing for a short trip to the field to
interview some farmers. ‘No,’ I
said,’ it’s just a three-day trip.’
‘You should take them,’ he insisted. ‘You should always take your
drawing pens with you’. He was right. I consider him a real cartoonist, while I
am still an aspiring, not yet 100% cartoonist. Real cartoonists feel the need
to draw wherever they go, so they are always prepared with some pen they can
use. They take paper or sketchbooks with them too, though napkins and any other
paper would work just as well when the desire to draw strikes them.
Cartoonists are a rare species. They
are not that easy to find. I only met two in my entire life, compared to at
least twenty doctors and the same number of engineers. That’s because they are either secluded
at home, drawing, or in bars, getting drunk. I am not particularly a bar person. I go to bars fewer times
than I go see doctors, hence my statistics might be skewed. Also most
cartoonists can’t live off being a cartoonist 100% of the time, so they will do
other jobs while cartooning. They might pass as fashion designers[1],
architects, art school teachers, graphic designers, and even photographers[2]
or engineers[3] or boring
9-to-5 job holders[4][5].
Cartoonists like to drink coffee
and smoke[6] –but
so does 95% of the rest of the world.
Cartoonists are pet-people,
especially cats – because cartoonists tend
to be recluses or plain socially inept[7],
they sit around all day drawing or surfing the internet. A cat can sit on their
laps easily and warms the poor cartoonist’s legs during winter. Dogs need to be
walked every day. Unless the cartoonist has someone else to do this, most
wouldn’t want to care for a dog. Compare the number of cats as main characters
in cartoons – there’s Garfield, Felix the Cat, Fritz the Cat, Calvin and Hobbes[8],
Tom and Jerry, Krazy Kat and Simon’s cat – to dogs – we only have Snoopy, Hong
Kong Phooey, Mother Goose and Grimm, Mutts and Fred Basset. So I only gave 7 examples against 5
which doesn’t seem like a strong argument, but many autobiographical
cartoonists have also drawn about their own cats, such as Liz Prince, Yasmine
Surovec, Lucy Knisley, John
Porcelino, and Jeffrey Brown, to cite just a few, and this proves my point.
Cartoonists are proud nerds –Cartoonists know that Goscinny was the funny one
who wrote the text for Asterix, Lucky Luke and Iznogud, and that he died of a
fulminating heart attack at the doctor’s office during a cardio test because
his long-time friend and Asterix partner Uderzo asked him to get his health
checked[9].
Cartoonists know that the best Scrooge McDuck stories are by Carl Barks or Don
Rosa. Even outside the realm of cartoons, e.g. when my cartoonist friend sees
porn, he proudly recognizes the actress, the real color of her hair and how
many movies she has made.
Cartoonists are not very ambitious
– no one who wants to become rich or
powerful one day is ever going to say “I am going to be a cartoonist when I
grow up.” No one expects to get rich from drawing cartoons. Charles Schulz was
an exception, Walt Disney is considered more of a businessman than a real
cartoonist and Frank Miller (if he indeed is rich now) only became rich after
he sold the rights to film “Sin City” and “300”.
Cartoonists don’t see shrinks – firstly, most cartoonists don’t have enough money
to pay for shrinks, even if they want to see one. Drawing has a therapeutic
effect that takes off the need to see psychological help.
Cartoonists are touched by
people who draw for them – because people
are always asking them to draw for free, whether it is a wedding invitation or
a business logo or a birthday card, when finally someone else decides to draw
something for the cartoonists, their hearts melt out like butter under the
sun. Most people wouldn’t risk
drawing anything for a cartoonist thinking it would be lame to compare their
own meager artistic skills to a professional artist’s, and precisely because so
few people dare do that, cartoonists are longing for drawings for them that are
not made by them. It’s similar to
how chefs feel when someone else cooks dinner for them, even if the meal might
not be as great as if they have cooked it themselves. They feel cared for, and
loved.[10]
I can say from my personal
experience that I managed to date my current cartoonist boyfriend after I sent
him daily cartoons with representations of me hitting on him. Two hundred cartoons
later and after his online dating account expired, he started warming up to me.
Cartoonists can make a cartoon
out of everything – even bitter life
experiences. Maybe especially out of bitter life experiences. John Callahan
drew a cartoon about his alcoholism[11].
David Small drew “Stitches”, a book about his childhood with cancer and a crazy
abusive grandmother and a not-so-loving mother who suffered from closeted
lesbianism. Marjane Satrapi drew “Persepolis” based on her childhood in Iran.
Craig Thompson drew “Blankets” based on his adolescence. Alex Noriega is drawing a graphic novel
about his anosmia[12].
Maitena Burundarena draws about her hormones. Fiction sometimes gets mixed with
real life, but real experiences are certainly a constant source of inspiration
for the cartoonist. They observe, they reflect, and they draw.
Cartoonists have a twisted sense
of humor – the best jokes are the ones
that nobody has the courage to make. John Callahan made a cartoon about KKK
[Figure 1], and Alex Noriega made a cartoon about Hitler [Figure 2]. They made
these unanimously unpopular characters seem like your next door neighbor, and
received a lot of hate mail because of it. Nothing is considered too much of a
taboo for a cartoon. Being politically correct is not one of the items in the
how to be a cartoonist manual.
Just because it’s funny, it
doesn’t mean it’s not serious. Cartoons allow people to address heavy issues in a
humorous way. They also spread ideas faster. Because of their courage to
portray injustices, many cartoonists become political targets in societies
where free speech is a luxury, such as Syrian cartoonist Ali Ferzat[13]. Being a cartoonist is one of the oldest
professions in the history of humanity – ever since the first cave man who
doodled the bison hunt on the rock walls and became rock art – as long as human
society exists so will cartoonists. And there is nothing to be ashamed about
being one, or writing about them.
[1] “For the
last 8 years I´ve been working in the fashion industry designing T-shirts and I
hate it with all my soul.”, Alex Noriega, in
http://www.myskoteket.se/featured-articles/bakom-varje-linje-01-alex-noriega
[2] If “What the
Duck” author Aaron Johnson is not a photographer, he certainly knows a lot
about the profession
[3] Potential
professions of “Piled Higher and Deeper”author Jorge Cham and “Saturday Morning
Breakfast Cereal” author Zach Weiner
[4] “For me, one
of the big lessons of the chickens has been learning how important it is to do
something creative every day, even if it's only for a few minutes.”, Doug
Savage, author of “Savage Chickens”, through personal communication in July
2010, which led me to think he has a boring 9-to-5 job
[5] “By day,
Doug Savage edits software manuals in the dark recesses of a giant corporation;
by night, he is the creator of Savage Chickens, a cartoon drawn entirely on
sticky notes”, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/doug-savage, December 2011.
[6] Not
necessarily cigarettes. Smoking can include pipe, marijuana as well as hashish.
[7] “I've been
told that I'm socially inept and that I have the personality of a blank piece
of paper. Thank god for the internet”, Yasmine Surovec, in http://catversushuman.blogspot.com/p/about.html
[8] Hobbes was
inspired by Bill Watterson’s own cat Sprite.
[9] Ironically,
if Goscinny had continued living his sedentary life he might have survived a
few more years.
[10] I believe a
similar logic applies to other professions as well, except in the case of
colonoscopy doctors. Nobody likes to get fingered in their butt under
non-sexual circumstances, irrespective of whose finger it is.
[11] Can be
found at the end of his book “Digesting the child within: and other cartoons to
live by”, ISBN-10 0688094880
[12] Personal
communication, November 2010.
[13] http://www.worldpolicy.org/blog/2011/10/07/egyptians-show-solidarity-tortured-syrian-cartoonist
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Movie watched in November 2011
Zach and Miri make a porno - by Kevin Smith ( from Clerks, Chasing Amy, Dogma, etc), with Seth Rogen (from Knocked Up). Zach (Seth) is pretty funny who works at a Starbuck look alike and is out of cash. He has the brilliant idea of directing a porno movie with his housemate Miriam to make loads of money after he meets a gay porno actors couple in their high school reunion. It was quite funny throughout with some cheesy cute romantic scenes (as Zach and Miri have to become a couple in the end).
I can't believe I only watched one movie in November. I will try to make up for the lag in December.
I can't believe I only watched one movie in November. I will try to make up for the lag in December.
Movies watched in October 2011
Glengarry Glen Ross - an all-male casting movie (except for the coat-check girl at the Chinese restaurant), about real estate agents that need to sell better or they will get axed. Al Pacino is the salesman that manages most sales per month, while Jack Lemmon is the one that is almost being fired. Alec Baldwin plays the major asshole that has the best lines of the movie. It is an excellent movie, but rather depressing (throughout, and more so towards the end).
The Town, by Ben Affleck and with Ben Affleck. He is a young man from Charlestown, a neighborhood of Boston well known for breeding bank robbers (dunno whether that is true or not). He is the brain of the operations, while his other Irish-American friends are the hands etc. He starts dating the girl that was the manager in one of the banks they robbed and that was taken hostage by them, and wants himself out of the bank robbing business, but is forced to make another robbery. It's a pretty cool movie.
Margin Call - about the Wall Street crash, or the 24 hours before it. I don't remember *which* Wall Street crash, but I think it was the 2008 one. Some investment bank analyst realizes that investments have been sold outside of their risk margin (or something like that, as I have no clue what it is all about), and basically everything was overvalued and things were going to collapse soon, and some people need to be sacrificed and fired. It has some really famous people (Demi Moore, Jeremy Iron, Stanley Tucci - I like Stanley Tucci - , Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, etc), nothing really happens during the movie yet it doesn't feel that long. It's just mood, mood, oh something bad is going to happen soon what do we do, and then the movie is over.
Atonement, based on Ian McEwan's homonymous book. I have mixed feelings about this movie. At some point in the middle of watching it I thought it was pretty crappy, then near the end I started liking it again. I haven't read the book yet so I can't tell whether I like it better than the book or not. A friend said there was good acting in it (which I disagree) but the movie wasn't good and another friend loved the movie, so I decided to keep the movie for a while and maybe watch it again some other time.
The Town, by Ben Affleck and with Ben Affleck. He is a young man from Charlestown, a neighborhood of Boston well known for breeding bank robbers (dunno whether that is true or not). He is the brain of the operations, while his other Irish-American friends are the hands etc. He starts dating the girl that was the manager in one of the banks they robbed and that was taken hostage by them, and wants himself out of the bank robbing business, but is forced to make another robbery. It's a pretty cool movie.
Margin Call - about the Wall Street crash, or the 24 hours before it. I don't remember *which* Wall Street crash, but I think it was the 2008 one. Some investment bank analyst realizes that investments have been sold outside of their risk margin (or something like that, as I have no clue what it is all about), and basically everything was overvalued and things were going to collapse soon, and some people need to be sacrificed and fired. It has some really famous people (Demi Moore, Jeremy Iron, Stanley Tucci - I like Stanley Tucci - , Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, etc), nothing really happens during the movie yet it doesn't feel that long. It's just mood, mood, oh something bad is going to happen soon what do we do, and then the movie is over.
Atonement, based on Ian McEwan's homonymous book. I have mixed feelings about this movie. At some point in the middle of watching it I thought it was pretty crappy, then near the end I started liking it again. I haven't read the book yet so I can't tell whether I like it better than the book or not. A friend said there was good acting in it (which I disagree) but the movie wasn't good and another friend loved the movie, so I decided to keep the movie for a while and maybe watch it again some other time.
Movies watched in September 2011
Dockanema in Maputo happened this month (see Pigs in Maputo), and I managed to watch 5 documentaries this year.
Nostalgia de la luz, Dockanema - directed by Chilean Patricio Guzmán, tells the story of astronomers observing the stars from the Atacama desert, while a group of mothers try to find the bones of their children that were killed by the Pinochet regime and were supposedly buried there. I think it was a very good movie, but unfortunately I was too tired and fell asleep during the screening. My boyfriend went with me, he stayed awake throughout the entire movie and liked it.
Warchild, Dockanema - this is the story of Emmanuel Jal, who was a child soldier in Sudan's civil war, and who eventually fled through Kenya to the world and became a hip-hop artist. He was there after the screening and answered questions from the audience. Really cool guy, and he's smart, young, and single (for any women out there who might be interested - I say women because I think he's straight, but I didn't ask). He might be a little fucked up still because he still has nightmares about what happened and things he had to do. More about the movie can be found here. It was a really powerful movie, and of course, depressing at the same time.
Robert Mugabe - What happened?, Dockanema - this is a documentary in which many people from Zimbabwe were interviewed. People who used to be politicians and even Mugabe's friends or coalition people and later fell out of grace. Also farmers (white and black) who suffered during his regime. The movie, however, doesn't really answer the question posed. It gives the impression that Mugabe started off quite well, and flipped off once he decided he didn't want to lose power and has been behaving like a crazy maniac since. My favorite part of the movie is when they say that not long after his wife died he married his secretary with whom he already had some children. Didn't look like he was too heartbroken...
The axe and the tree, Dockanema - it's a movie about an NGO that helps people recover from wars. They join people from both sides of the war, and they share their losses and suffering in a big circle, have activities with trees and nature, to try to help them forgive things they've done, and thing they've done to others. Also with people from Zimbabwe.
My name is Ahlam, Dockanema - a movie about a little girl that has a disease (I think it was leucemia but now I'm not sure) and her mother has to keep crossing the border between Israel and Palestina, I think. The girl is really cute (about 2 or 3 years old), and sometimes she gets better but most times she gets worse. In the end she dies, which just goes to prove my theory that people never make happy documentaries. A happy documentary is a fantasy.
Midnight in Paris, by Woody Allen - nothing happens in the movie, except to show how cool Paris always was, especially in the 1920s with all the artists and writers. Owen Wilson even made his voice whinier than usual, and sounded more like Woody Allen. Scary. Maybe if I had read books by Fitzgerald and the other writers mentioned I would have enjoyed the movie more. Unlikely, though.
Wolf's Rain - anime series. I watched this 3-dvd series (my 2nd dvd was a bit weird, it had many repeat scenes from previous episodes) about wolves that could look like humans. These wolf-humans were after the Flower Maiden, because she could lead them to Paradise. About 4 of these wolf-humans get together, and start searching for Paradise together, while some funky weird people trapped the Flower Maiden to create their own Paradise. There are various battles in which all wolves die except one, and then everybody seems to revive again. I would not watch this series again. I should not even have wasted my time watching it the first time, but I am a sucker for anime, especially anime that I have bought.
Nostalgia de la luz, Dockanema - directed by Chilean Patricio Guzmán, tells the story of astronomers observing the stars from the Atacama desert, while a group of mothers try to find the bones of their children that were killed by the Pinochet regime and were supposedly buried there. I think it was a very good movie, but unfortunately I was too tired and fell asleep during the screening. My boyfriend went with me, he stayed awake throughout the entire movie and liked it.
Warchild, Dockanema - this is the story of Emmanuel Jal, who was a child soldier in Sudan's civil war, and who eventually fled through Kenya to the world and became a hip-hop artist. He was there after the screening and answered questions from the audience. Really cool guy, and he's smart, young, and single (for any women out there who might be interested - I say women because I think he's straight, but I didn't ask). He might be a little fucked up still because he still has nightmares about what happened and things he had to do. More about the movie can be found here. It was a really powerful movie, and of course, depressing at the same time.
Robert Mugabe - What happened?, Dockanema - this is a documentary in which many people from Zimbabwe were interviewed. People who used to be politicians and even Mugabe's friends or coalition people and later fell out of grace. Also farmers (white and black) who suffered during his regime. The movie, however, doesn't really answer the question posed. It gives the impression that Mugabe started off quite well, and flipped off once he decided he didn't want to lose power and has been behaving like a crazy maniac since. My favorite part of the movie is when they say that not long after his wife died he married his secretary with whom he already had some children. Didn't look like he was too heartbroken...
The axe and the tree, Dockanema - it's a movie about an NGO that helps people recover from wars. They join people from both sides of the war, and they share their losses and suffering in a big circle, have activities with trees and nature, to try to help them forgive things they've done, and thing they've done to others. Also with people from Zimbabwe.
My name is Ahlam, Dockanema - a movie about a little girl that has a disease (I think it was leucemia but now I'm not sure) and her mother has to keep crossing the border between Israel and Palestina, I think. The girl is really cute (about 2 or 3 years old), and sometimes she gets better but most times she gets worse. In the end she dies, which just goes to prove my theory that people never make happy documentaries. A happy documentary is a fantasy.
Midnight in Paris, by Woody Allen - nothing happens in the movie, except to show how cool Paris always was, especially in the 1920s with all the artists and writers. Owen Wilson even made his voice whinier than usual, and sounded more like Woody Allen. Scary. Maybe if I had read books by Fitzgerald and the other writers mentioned I would have enjoyed the movie more. Unlikely, though.
Wolf's Rain - anime series. I watched this 3-dvd series (my 2nd dvd was a bit weird, it had many repeat scenes from previous episodes) about wolves that could look like humans. These wolf-humans were after the Flower Maiden, because she could lead them to Paradise. About 4 of these wolf-humans get together, and start searching for Paradise together, while some funky weird people trapped the Flower Maiden to create their own Paradise. There are various battles in which all wolves die except one, and then everybody seems to revive again. I would not watch this series again. I should not even have wasted my time watching it the first time, but I am a sucker for anime, especially anime that I have bought.
Movies watched in August 2011
Ceremony, with Michael Angarano and Uma Thurman. About a man (Michael Angarano) who is infatuated with this older woman (Uma Thurman) who is engaged to a documentary director who was good looking, mature and cool. Eventually the man realizes he is an ass and Uma should marry her fiancée, who knew about her infidelities anyway and didn't give a shit about them. Lame movie, but I've seen worse romantic comedies. This one wasn't even a comedy.
Henry's Crime, with Keanu Reeves, James Caan and Vera Farmiga. Henry (Keanu Reeves) comes out of prison for a crime he did not commit but then he decides to rob a bank that is right next to a rundown theater, where an actress (Vera Farmiga) is rehearsing for her next play. Henry calls for the help of James Caan (who is in prison, but manages to get out pretty easily for good behavior), and part of the plan requires Henry to act in the play with Vera as well. It is a naive movie, but not bad. Quite entertaining.
Pirates of the Caribbean 4 - On Stranger Tides, with Penelope Cruz. I was a bit disappointed because there was no Orlando Bloom in this movie but then I remembered that his character only steps on land every 20 years and it hasn't been 20 years since Pirates of the Caribbean 3. I don't like Penelope Cruz anymore, so I didn't pay much attention to the movie, except that she seemed to have had a fling with Captain Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and then a fall out. They were after some water that would give eternal life to someone. Reminded me of Indiana Jones 3.
Kung Fu Panda 2 - unfortunately my copy wasn't too good, but the general story is that there is a bad-ass peacock that was the reason Panda had to flee from his native land and end up adopted by a goose (duck?). His father finally tells Panda that he was adopted, and he has flashback images of his homeland being burnt down. Of course Panda wins in the end, after quite a fight with Mr. Peacock.
Wrecked, with Adrien Brody - according to the description on the cover of the movie: "a movie exploring the nothingness as the new standard for making a story". It was at the heart of nothingnesss. Adrien Brody is trapped in a car accident and doesn't remember anything. Nothing happens in the movie, and there is not even a proper script. But it was meant to be that way, so in some sense this movie was successful. Probably the worst movie I saw this year.
Hanna, with Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett - Hanna is a girl that was trained by her father to be a Nikita. She goes back and tries to avenge her mother by killing the people who had her mother killed (for example, Cate Blanchett being one of them). Eric Bana is her father but apparently Hanna is a product of some special experiment to make super human agents. Not a bad action movie. (I think my standards are going downhill.)
The conspirator, directed by Robert Redford - by far the best movie watched this month, it tells the story of the trial of Mary Surratt, who was accused of plotting the assassination of American president Abraham Lincoln. Young Professor Xavier from X-men (James McAvoy) plays her reluctant defendant, but as he sees that it would be an injustice to incriminate her he actually does a good job of defending her (even though he still fails).
Henry's Crime, with Keanu Reeves, James Caan and Vera Farmiga. Henry (Keanu Reeves) comes out of prison for a crime he did not commit but then he decides to rob a bank that is right next to a rundown theater, where an actress (Vera Farmiga) is rehearsing for her next play. Henry calls for the help of James Caan (who is in prison, but manages to get out pretty easily for good behavior), and part of the plan requires Henry to act in the play with Vera as well. It is a naive movie, but not bad. Quite entertaining.
Pirates of the Caribbean 4 - On Stranger Tides, with Penelope Cruz. I was a bit disappointed because there was no Orlando Bloom in this movie but then I remembered that his character only steps on land every 20 years and it hasn't been 20 years since Pirates of the Caribbean 3. I don't like Penelope Cruz anymore, so I didn't pay much attention to the movie, except that she seemed to have had a fling with Captain Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and then a fall out. They were after some water that would give eternal life to someone. Reminded me of Indiana Jones 3.
Kung Fu Panda 2 - unfortunately my copy wasn't too good, but the general story is that there is a bad-ass peacock that was the reason Panda had to flee from his native land and end up adopted by a goose (duck?). His father finally tells Panda that he was adopted, and he has flashback images of his homeland being burnt down. Of course Panda wins in the end, after quite a fight with Mr. Peacock.
Wrecked, with Adrien Brody - according to the description on the cover of the movie: "a movie exploring the nothingness as the new standard for making a story". It was at the heart of nothingnesss. Adrien Brody is trapped in a car accident and doesn't remember anything. Nothing happens in the movie, and there is not even a proper script. But it was meant to be that way, so in some sense this movie was successful. Probably the worst movie I saw this year.
Hanna, with Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett - Hanna is a girl that was trained by her father to be a Nikita. She goes back and tries to avenge her mother by killing the people who had her mother killed (for example, Cate Blanchett being one of them). Eric Bana is her father but apparently Hanna is a product of some special experiment to make super human agents. Not a bad action movie. (I think my standards are going downhill.)
The conspirator, directed by Robert Redford - by far the best movie watched this month, it tells the story of the trial of Mary Surratt, who was accused of plotting the assassination of American president Abraham Lincoln. Young Professor Xavier from X-men (James McAvoy) plays her reluctant defendant, but as he sees that it would be an injustice to incriminate her he actually does a good job of defending her (even though he still fails).
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Maputo parou de manhã por causa do ciclismo nos jogos africanos
Os transtornos continuaram na sexta-feira, dia 09 e também hoje, domingo dia 11. No entanto, as pessoas dessa vez já estão mais precavidas...
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Movies watched in July 2011
X-Men 5: First Class - the fifth X-Men movie wasn't as good as the first ones, but it was definitely better than the one about Wolverine's origins. James McAvoy plays young Professor Xavier and Michael Fassbender plays young Magneto (which is a pity, as one of the attractions of the X-Men movies for me was Ian McKellen). Story is about Magneto's origins, and how he and Xavier try to work together but never really get to that point, and also shows how Xavier becomes paraplegic. Young Xavier seems to take some sexual interest in the opposite sex than the older Xavier, who seemed to me as sexual as Spock.
The Phantom - pilot movie of a series that never came out, a re-adaptation to more modern times of the comic "Phantom" - this guy who dressed in purple, had a skull as his symbol and lived inside a cave with the shape of a skull.
Sunset Limited - the entire movie is a conversation between Black (Samuel Jackson) and White (Tommy Lee Jones) inside Black's apartment, after Black, who believes in God, has saved White (an atheist) from committing suicide in a train station. I found the movie a bit boring the first time I watched it but on second watching it was ok. Written by Cormac McCarthy, maybe it was originally meant to be a play.
Jack Goes Boating - a movie with Phillip Seymour Hoffman playing this guy who tries to go out with this woman who always thinks people are hitting on her or harassing her all the time. He learns swimming so that he can take the girl out on a boat ride later in Summer, and he also learns how to cook so that he can invite the girl out to dinner (i.e. basically he is a very nice guy). Meanwhile his friend and his wife are fighting each other the whole time. It's not really a comedy, it's not ready a drama. It's not funny and it's not touching, yet it doesn't suck entirely. It's an ok movie.The Savages is a much better movie.
The Milagro Beanfield War, directed by Robert Redford (with Sonia Braga in it!) is a movie about this big real estate company going into some Hispanic people's fields without their consent. The company was trying to buy out all the land and push people away but one guy decides to start planting beans in his field and that creates a lot of trouble for everybody. According to who recommended this movie to me, this is a movie about "how things can go bad without proper community consultation". Christopher Walken and Melanie Griffith take a part in the movie, too.
The Phantom - pilot movie of a series that never came out, a re-adaptation to more modern times of the comic "Phantom" - this guy who dressed in purple, had a skull as his symbol and lived inside a cave with the shape of a skull.
Sunset Limited - the entire movie is a conversation between Black (Samuel Jackson) and White (Tommy Lee Jones) inside Black's apartment, after Black, who believes in God, has saved White (an atheist) from committing suicide in a train station. I found the movie a bit boring the first time I watched it but on second watching it was ok. Written by Cormac McCarthy, maybe it was originally meant to be a play.
Jack Goes Boating - a movie with Phillip Seymour Hoffman playing this guy who tries to go out with this woman who always thinks people are hitting on her or harassing her all the time. He learns swimming so that he can take the girl out on a boat ride later in Summer, and he also learns how to cook so that he can invite the girl out to dinner (i.e. basically he is a very nice guy). Meanwhile his friend and his wife are fighting each other the whole time. It's not really a comedy, it's not ready a drama. It's not funny and it's not touching, yet it doesn't suck entirely. It's an ok movie.The Savages is a much better movie.
The Milagro Beanfield War, directed by Robert Redford (with Sonia Braga in it!) is a movie about this big real estate company going into some Hispanic people's fields without their consent. The company was trying to buy out all the land and push people away but one guy decides to start planting beans in his field and that creates a lot of trouble for everybody. According to who recommended this movie to me, this is a movie about "how things can go bad without proper community consultation". Christopher Walken and Melanie Griffith take a part in the movie, too.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Ramadan 2011
Ramadan começou de novo este ano, na data de 01 de agosto de 2011. Aqui segue a tabela dos horários de "quebra de jejum" diários. Notem que para cada dia, porque o sol está diferente, o horário para se quebrar o jejum varia alguns minutinhos. Sem contar que, dependendo de onde você está, o horário também varia alguns minutinhos. Eu descobri também que no horário para se quebrar o jejum é obrigatório comer ou beber qualquer coisinha. Bom, eu não estava fazendo isso. Mas como eu também estou fazendo isso só de farra, eu quebro meu jejum quando eu quero, normalmente depois do horário oficial mas às vezes também antes.
Sem contar esta lista de outros itens a serem seguidos. Meu favorito é "Ser tolerante e manter-se alegre com todos e a todo o momento".
As mulheres aqui cobrem o cabelo durante este período todo para não tentar os homens a pensarem besteira.
Sem contar esta lista de outros itens a serem seguidos. Meu favorito é "Ser tolerante e manter-se alegre com todos e a todo o momento".
As mulheres aqui cobrem o cabelo durante este período todo para não tentar os homens a pensarem besteira.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Movies watched in June 2011
Hangover and Hangover 2 - because Hangover 2 was being sold on the streets and everybody was telling me how Hangover was a funny movie, I decided to watch both of them on the same day. Bad idea. Hangover 2 is not so funny when watched right after Hangover 1. Also because my copy of Hangover 2 wasn't that good, I generally liked Hangover 1 better. I was kind of surprised when they didn't show what happened on the bachelor's night out and felt a bit jipped until I realized the story got cooler and cooler. My favorite part was Mike Tyson's tiger showing up in the hotel room. Hagover 2 is basically Hangover 1, but in Bangkok.
Water for Elephants - a movie based on Sara Gruen's homonymous book. I think the book won some prize, but I'm not sure. The movies is BAD. The photography is fine, there are good actors in it (Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz, from Inglorious Basterds), but a lame script and Robert Pattinson, the vampire lead in the Twilight Series kind of ruin it. Robert is a cute face but he has fewer expressions than the elephant in the movie. Then my dvd copy went out of sync (sound and image) and that just made the whole experience go downhill. I gave the movie away to a friend and I feel a bit guilty about it. More about my feelings on the movie can be found here.
Armless - I think this movie is Canadian, and it was weird and interesting. The story is about a man who has a psychological disorder called Body Integrity Identity Disorder, and his quest to cut off his own arms to feel complete. That's all the movie is about and we feel it's going to be a drag in the beginning but it actually catches our attention and the movie goes by really fast. I was afraid they would show really gruesome bloody scenes of the guy sawing away his arms, but they never showed that scene.
Smart people - an ok movie about a literature professor (played by Dennis Quaid) who is still mourning his dead wife and starts dating Sarah Jessica Parker. She basically ruins the movie. Ellen Page is really good as Dennis's daughter and Thomas Haden Church is pretty cool as the brother/uncle.
I suspect if Sarah Jessica Parker wasn't there the movie would have been a lot better.
Barney's version, with Paul Giamatti. Giamatti is a Jewish producer whose father is played by Dustin Hoffman. The movie starts from his youth in Italy and, after two unsuccessful marriages, he finally marries the mother of his children (played by Rosamund Pike, who was in Pride and Prejudice). After that the movie gets slower and more boring, until Giamatti gets Alzheimer and dies. That's it.
Water for Elephants - a movie based on Sara Gruen's homonymous book. I think the book won some prize, but I'm not sure. The movies is BAD. The photography is fine, there are good actors in it (Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz, from Inglorious Basterds), but a lame script and Robert Pattinson, the vampire lead in the Twilight Series kind of ruin it. Robert is a cute face but he has fewer expressions than the elephant in the movie. Then my dvd copy went out of sync (sound and image) and that just made the whole experience go downhill. I gave the movie away to a friend and I feel a bit guilty about it. More about my feelings on the movie can be found here.
Armless - I think this movie is Canadian, and it was weird and interesting. The story is about a man who has a psychological disorder called Body Integrity Identity Disorder, and his quest to cut off his own arms to feel complete. That's all the movie is about and we feel it's going to be a drag in the beginning but it actually catches our attention and the movie goes by really fast. I was afraid they would show really gruesome bloody scenes of the guy sawing away his arms, but they never showed that scene.
Smart people - an ok movie about a literature professor (played by Dennis Quaid) who is still mourning his dead wife and starts dating Sarah Jessica Parker. She basically ruins the movie. Ellen Page is really good as Dennis's daughter and Thomas Haden Church is pretty cool as the brother/uncle.
I suspect if Sarah Jessica Parker wasn't there the movie would have been a lot better.
Barney's version, with Paul Giamatti. Giamatti is a Jewish producer whose father is played by Dustin Hoffman. The movie starts from his youth in Italy and, after two unsuccessful marriages, he finally marries the mother of his children (played by Rosamund Pike, who was in Pride and Prejudice). After that the movie gets slower and more boring, until Giamatti gets Alzheimer and dies. That's it.
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