in a different time

Halloween is almost here, and unlike years past, I have yet to give it the proper build up it deserves. In the past, I have tried devoting the weeks leading up to Halloween to short videos or movie recommendations with hopes to get people in the holiday spirit (pun intended.) and for one reason or another I haven't done this.  Maybe I'll make some time to do this before tomorrow.

In the meantime, I'll torture you with this bit of tripe.

I just read online that Hollywood is trying to make a PG-13 version of Hellraiser to appeal to teens. WHY?! Of all the horror movies in the world, why would anyone want to make a PG-13 version of Hellraiser? That is like trying to make a PG-13 version of Saw. These are movies based on the sado-masochistic punishments of Hell being dished out to sinners on earth. I remember very well the first time I saw a Hellraiser movie, the mental image of a body with all the skin stripped of the flesh like a Bodies Exhibit still sends a chill down my spine, not to mention the incredible appearance of Pinhead or any of the other Cenobites. It's visuals like these are the cornerstone of this style of horror... which is why those movies are popular, the things that make you squirm on the inside and your skin crawl on the outside. These are things you certainly don't get in a PG-13 movie.

Horror movies are one of the milestones of life (First kiss, first time to drive, get to see first Horror movie...). It usually happens at a friends house, the one with more liberal parents than your own. It may be a birthday party, sleepover or slumber party when it happens. The night winds down and everyone gathers around the TV to watch a scary movie and it's always, always, a rated R movie .The slumber party environment makes the perfect place to watch horror movies, it provides a certain feeling of protection from the group and yet also providing a certain level of group hysteria.

Lowering the movies rating, in a way, changes mood. It takes away the feeling of doing something clandestine, which sets the mood perfectly for watching a scary movie. The emotional response to "Mom and Dad don't want me to do this" mixed with scary and violent elements of the movie make for an excellent horror movie experience.

Of course there is the argument that these movies are something that children should not be exposed to, that it really is something that they should see when they are more mature. I can only disagree. There is nothing harmful from watching an occasional horror flick. No child has ever had bruises after watching a horror movie just as no child has ever had a stroke caused by too much adrenaline. It is merely a step out of the protective shelter that parents insist on keeping their children wrapped in.

Hollywood please (not that you'll ever read this) DON'T! Don't release another crappy horror movie like so many before. Stop making sequels to movies just for the sake of making a dime because you still retain the license (Universal Studios I'm looking at you) while disregarding any and all previous characters and canon. If you must tell the story, go ahead, just make new characters and give it an entirely new name. And don't release a PG-13 sequel to a 30 year old license because you think it will have more commercial appeal that releasing a R rated flick.... phew!




Alright folks, I'm going to hop off my soapbox. Have a happy,safe and scary Halloween...

Two Nerds and Too Much Time

Jason and I have way too much time on our hands! We were going back and forth with old hip hop songs and by the end of it all we had ourselves a pretty awesome playlist!
"1. If I Only Had A Brain - Buzzcocks
2. Proto Culture - Del The Funky Homosapien
3. Deeper Shade Of Soul - Urban Dance Squad
4. Me Myself And I - De La Soul
5. Award Tour - A Tribe Called Quest
6. Tennessee - Arrested Development
7. The Choice Is Yours - Black Sheep
8. When Will They Shoot? - Ice Cube
9. Sound Of Da Police - KRS-One
10. Bizarro Genius Baby - MC Frontalot"

** track 1 may say that it's by the Buzzcocks but that's only because Rhapsody screwed up. If I Only Had A Brain is by none other than the great MC 900 Ft. Jesus!!!!

I Tumble 4 you

By the way, for those of you that regularly read my this blog, I've just signed up on Tumblr if you'd like to add that to your feed or what ever you are using to subscribe to this... It'll be more of the same stuff, I just like the more streamlined posting Tumblr (I'll continue to update here but when I actually want to TALK about things.)

Curse My Stupid Brain!!

I'm considering getting a XBOX 360, finally after it's been out for 10 years or something to that effect (what's it been 5 years?) I just sold my car and somehow managed to turn enough profit that I can afford something small, really small, tiny really, so my thought was (and with my GF's blessing) finally getting an xbox.

The problem is do I want to get rid of the Wii to get the Xbox? There are games I still like and some coming out that I want that are Nintendo only games and I feel a loyalty to Nintendo to keep it. Plus all the games on the Virtual Console that I like. I mean sure I can just get a NES emulator but any time I've played an emulator it's been a pain in the ass (but then again I could finally get Bionic Commando, Skate or Die and a ton of others).

Also there's the problem with the Red Ring of Death. Do places like Gamestop offer warranties on their refurbished systems in case it dies? I mean come on, I'm a cheap-ass and if I can find something cheaper used I will usually get it. Should I be forced to buy a new system just to get the Mircosoft Warranty? That just doesn't seem that appealing.

And of course my biggest problem of all: Am I really being a whiney little bitch over a GAME system? I mean really, when there is stuff like this coming out:


oh and I saw this today

Mazzy Star - "Fade Into You"

Man, I love this song. I heard it the other night and it just stayed there.

I had this song stuck in my head all night

More playing with the inudge

Caninecleanup

I saw this on a tweet earlier and it hasn't left my browser since... every couple minutes I toggle over just to stare.

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it
would be a merrier world. - JRR Tolkien

The Clash @ Demonhead

I KNOW, I KNOW, you're sick of me talking about friggin' Scott Pilgrim, and I am too, but I am OBSESSED with this song. I was trying to find a good copy of the full song but apparently embedding is disabled via youtube, but you can check it out yourself here.

mass mexplosions

It's been a while since I've posted a proper blog and an even longer time since I've posted anything artsy. It's not that I haven't been working on anything, I just haven't had much time for scanning and coloring but I managed to pic up a brush recently and tested some of my painting skills.

I actually did two paintings recently but sadly I only have a picture of one of them. The first I did was another monkey for my daughter's room. The second was for my cousin's son of a Pterodactyl but sadly I forgot to take a picture of it before I gave it away... I swear I should charge for these bad boys... oh well.



Since the arrival of The Kid I've been spending a lot of time on my butt with a bottle in hand, which leads to a lot of TV watching. The majority of the days have been spent watching Law and Order: SVU and Angel on Netflix, but at nights when Dad is awake we watch more cartoons, samurai movies, and whatever streaming MST3k episodes Netflix has available. So a few days ago The Kid and I watched the first season of Ducktales on YouTube. Between Mc Chris tweeting about it and the Launchpad McQuack ref in Scott Pilgrim I was subconsciously driven to it. I'd forgotten how great the show was... So I felt inspired to draw Scrooge McDuck!


(NOTE: I won't draw Disney characters in my own style. I've been conditioned to draw them as they have always looked... sorry if that's unoriginal for the fickle interwebbers)

Now that blogging is out of the way, I'm off to play more Pokemon and Warioware DIY, and find another Christopher Moore book to read.
(by the way go read one of his books too, they're good you won't be disappointed.)

BEEP-BEEP-BOOM!

Been a while

Ok, so I haven't posted a drawing in a while... I know, bad me! I've just been busy and haven't drawn anything I've felt like posting. So I'll talk about something instead. Last summer I came across a post, while surfing the net, about a movie being made inspired by a manga/anime. No I'm not talking about Scott Pilgrim again. No this movie, from what I've heard, actually inspired Scott Pilgrim. I'm talking about Beck (Mongolian Chop Squad). If you've heard of it awesome for you if not... DUDE, seriously!

The series is epic it covers the entire life from beginning to end of a bands journey to stardom, with some personal drama thrown in for spice.

Rather than give you the whole story why don't you just take it from me that it's good and watch it... If you really must know everything beforehand then here read the wiki.



Here's the trailer for the upcoming(?) movie.

AVATAR: The Last Airbender

In HIGH anticipation for the movie coming out this week I felt compelled to draw Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender... Does it bother anyone else that the movie is not given the full title of the cartoon?

Super Awesome Funstuffs

The Rad people running the Scott Pilgrim movie site have an awesome Avatar creator try it out for yourself!

Scott Pilgrim Game

Some video for the new SP game has hit the interwebs!!! It looks good, real good, like all my favorite Arcade four player Fighters (TMNT, Marvel), River City Ransom, Double Dragon, and Pirate Baby Cabana Battle! Don't like my comparisons see for yourself.

Some days I wish I were a little more Crafty

Lately, I've been playing a lot of Warioware DIY so I've been doing some image searches of old NES sprites for game references. As I search I've been coming across a bunch of craft sites that use the pixel art for cross stitching. One of these sites is called Spritestich.com and I've spent the better part of an hour going through their archives. Why I've never come across this before I'll never know but I'm really impressed much of what I've seen. From cross stitching to crochet and perler beads to legos. It's really making me want to learn other forms of art beyond pencils, pens and paints. My brother years ago introduced me to iam8bit.com which has always impressed me but the crafts here seem a little more do-able... well maybe, I might just do a search at Etsy and see what I can buy. Some of this stuff could be useful with a baby on the way...

Grape-Chimp

Well Folks, it's kind of been a while since I've posted anything (well it feels that way). Since moving to a new apartment I haven't had much opportunity to sit down and draw... That is until tonight.

Lindsay and I have been kicking around the idea of me painting something for our daughter's room. So this is it: Grape-Chimp. I think it's pretty apparent that I need an easel, since it's very off center. Also I'm thinking I should probably invest in some new brushes and paint while I'm at it... But although flawed I'm happy with the way it turned out. My little personal gift to my child. Hope you like it.


PS. Just a funny side note. While painting this I was watching Every Which Way but Loose. Just a bit of unintentional inspiration since I started watching it because of Clint Eastwood and not the Orangutan.

Mid-aged Mutant Ninja Turtle

(I'm pretty sure that this means I hold nothing sacred!)

Alright, Jason this one's for you! (heartless bastard!) You asked for a Mid-aged Turtle well here he is. As you can see I imaged Donatello as this corvette driving turtle. I figured after years of being the tech guy and computer wiz, he'd be the one to go soft. (let's face it Leo and Raph are more disciplined for fighting and Mikey is a perpetual child.)

Let's point out some of his distinguishing features:
-Double chin
-Comfy shoes
-Socks pulled up WAAAAYYYY too high
-Cardigan sweater (the sewers are drafty)
-Knee-brace (from years jumping off of buildings)
-Cup of tea
and
-Glasses

So there you have it, folks, the death of my childhood. Like I said:

Jason, you're a bastard! (Hope you have fun learning to be an Astronaut!)


P.S. I originally did a full color version but when I went to save PS died on me... so this is the quicker lazier version.

Leonardo

I just bought a new sketchbook and 9 times out of 10 when I get a new one I draw a Ninja Turtle. So to celebrate my new sketchbook... Leonardo.