Blog

This is the blog site I'll be bringing in. Greg Beeman is a writer and director for the TV show HEROES. He has a blog which he updates after each episode is aired. It's full of interesting, behind-the-scenes stuff about the show, which I love!

http://gregbeeman.blogspot.com/

Quarters, Unlike Pennies, Will Be Around For A While

I actually don't collect anything.  Well, maybe DVD's, but that's not something very interesting. But just recently, I've been collecting the new state quarters.  They started being issued in 1999 and the last of them are due out this year.  This is a temporary collection because once I've gotten all them, I'm going to give them to my mom, who actually loves collecting things.  So far I have all but 6 states.  It's wierd, once you get into collecting these quarters, and you get change from buying something you immediately start looking at the quarters to see what state they are.

More Than Meets The Collection!

Being a huge Transformers fan, I can't not talk about collecting Transformers memorabilia. I've been a fan since day 1, which would be 1984. There's just something so fascinating with the idea of cars, trucks and planes turning into alien robots. The mythology that's been created for them has grown to be very complex and detailed. It's a mythos that's lasted well over 20 years. And it looks like there's plenty of life left to it.

Here's a youtube video of "the ultimate fan" and his collection of Transformers toys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IAKZeN-n_Q&feature=related

May The Collection Be With You

When thinking about collectors' or collecting memorabilia, Star Wars often come to mind. I've seen History Channel specials on Star Wars collectors' and all they've done to amass huge collections of everything Star Wars. One collector even added an additional room (or was it floor?) to his house! That's dedication to your passion!

Here's a link to an interview with Mike Kurtz, the founder the Metro Area Star Wars Collection Club. Interesting stuff.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2005/05/05/DI2005050501237.html

American University Museum

American University has an incredible Art Museum at their Katzen Art Center (Dept. of Art). I've visited it before and I was extremely impressed. The museum exhibits both student work and work by visiting artists from all corners of the world. They also conduct Gallery Talks with exhibiting artists as well. I haven't been to one of those, but I want to (maybe this summer).

If you guys ever get a chance, you should definitely visit the museum. It contains some breathtaking work.

Link: http://www.american.edu/cas/katzen/museum/

Movies for Summer 2008

Want to know what's coming out this summer?

http://www.firstshowing.net/2008/01/10/official-guide-to-the-summer-of-2008/

Something That Caught My Eye

My brother-in-law is a digital artist and I've just recently seen his works. He has a blog that he uses to display his pieces, which are, of course, awesome! He has actually started selling his work now and I think he's exhibiting soon as well. My favorite is "Night Bloom". You can check out some of his pieces at his blog site:

http://www.timmiri.com/

Enjoy!

An Engineer's Guide To Cats

For all the cat lovers. This short film is awesome! Check it out:

http://video.yahoo.com/network/100284668?v=2369949&l=3774740

A Good Cause

I saw a commercial on TV for this organization and it was really powerful.
http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer

Unnecessary Instructions

I found the napkins at Chipotle to have some "unnecessary instructions". It has three visual steps on how to hold the burrito, unwrap the burrito and then eat the burrito. I guess they can be considered to be little visual elements that add to their branding and so forth, but they are definitely unnecessary, at least to me.

Uwe Boll

I just had to post this.

So there's this German director named Uwe Boll who makes films based off of video games. He works outside of the Hollywood system by getting all his funding from the German government and other overseas investors and sources.

Here's the thing... his work as a director sucks! He's been criticized as being the worst director ever! A review of one of Boll's films (Alone in the Dark) stated... "the movie should make all other "bad" movie directors feel better in comparison: "'It's okay,' they'll tell themselves, 'I didn't make Alone in the Dark.'" Another reviewer wrote that his films were "so poorly built, so horribly acted and so sloppily stitched together that they're not even at the straight-to-DVD level."

So now there's this online petition going around getting signatures so that Uwe Boll will stop making movies! And he's actually posted videos of himself addressing this petition. And he gets really irate and starts badmouthing Michael Bay and George Clooney. It's pretty incredible. Check them out:

http://www.movieweb.com/video/V08D3fkpyGRTVX

http://www.movieweb.com/video/V08D13cnvxyPQR

Project 4orty 5ive at the Grog

The Juice Guys

So my product is Nantucket Nectars juices. You can find them practically anywhere and the their selling point is the fact that their juices are mostly all natural. The company founders are two guys named Tom and Tom that had humble beginnings.

The Company
Tom and Tom started their adventure servicing visiting boats in Nantucket Harbor. They bought a Boston Whaler, painted the name "Allserve" on the side, and a business was born. Their jobs consisted of delivering everything from newspapers and coffee, to laundry and other necessities not easily obtainable without a trip into town. What started as a local saying about their business soon became their motto: "Ain't nothin' them boys don't do."

With the Allserve business growing quickly, the Toms used the opportunity to start a juice company, Nantucket Nectars. They also opened the Allserve General Store on the island, created a distribution company to get their juice out to thirsty consumers, and opened the Juice Guys Juice Bar which, now partnered with Provisions, still exists on the island today.

Tom & Tom Story
Tom First and Tom Scott, known as Tom and Tom, met at Brown University in the fall of 1985. Four years later they graduated and headed to Nantucket. That summer they started Allserve, a floating convenience store servicing boats in Nantucket Harbor. The pair delivered everything from newspapers to laundry in their unmistakable red boat. One cold winter night they began mixing juice in a blender. The following summer they sold it off their boat. People loved it! They decided to call it Nantucket Nectars.

Today, Nantucket Nectars are available in many varieties: 100% Juices, Juice Cocktails, Nantucket Squeezed Nectars, and Nantucket Nectars Organic. There is also a Juice Guys Juice Bar on Easy Street in Nantucket. You gotta try Nantucket Nectars. We won't let you down.

taken from www.juiceguys.com

Project 4orty 5ive at Fletchers

Hey guys!

This is a video of my band at Fletchers back in February. You can't really see me in it though because I'm on the far right corner of the stage and its dark. But you can see my arm, my hand, my watch and part of my guitar!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDy9tRCcVyI

Kulifoahnia!

Hey everyone!

Not sure if you've come across this before, but there are some guys who've cut together audio clips of Arnold Schwarzenegger from his various film roles. They've used these clips for prank phone calls to random people in random places. They basically call people and respond to them by playing dialogue from Arnold on the phone.

Most of these are pretty funny, but there are some that could be offensive as well. Judge for yourself. I just thought I'd put it out there.

Oh yeah... WARNING: Explicit Language!

http://www.realmofdarkness.net/pranks/arnold-pranks.htm

Narrative: Timelines

I think timelines are a very interesting and visual way to convey a narrative.  Based on the topic, they take the most significant event within a specified length of time and use them chronologically as points in time to establish and describe that amount of time.  This creates a narrative of events that shapes a period of history, or a art movement, or a campaign.

There are many kinds of timelines.  I really like the graphical ones that show thumbnail pictures of the specific event and and includes the year and/or a brief description of that point in time.

Lovely Alien

Maria, Jill, Mike and I came up with this little story.  We tried to convey a short story within 5 panels of information.  

Our story is called "Lovely Alien" and it is about an astronaut landing on a planet.  He then encounters what he thinks is a cute, lovable little alien.  The cute alien then shows his true colors and the rest of its body springs forth from the ground exposing its true self.  The astronaut shoots the alien with this laser gun, but the alien splits and becomes two!  The two aliens then devour the astronaut.  They then see another space ship about to land and bury their more gruesome halves underground, only letting their cute, lovable tops to be exposed.  The second astronaut then lands and the entire horrific cycle starts over.

I enjoyed this little project quite a bit.  It was a good exercise in establishing a story within specific keyframes.  We chose the 5 most important "scenes" of the story and created key frames that progressed the pace of the narrative.  I think we did a good job of establishing a beginning, middle and end as well.  This was fun!

Narrative

These are the lyrics to one of my all-time favorite songs ever by a band called Gin Blossoms! I think these lyrics have the writer's heart very evident in them. In just 4 verses and a chorus, I get an entire picture of a relationship that seemed very one sided. It's sort of a sad song that's just a reflection of sad emotions I guess. But overall, I think it's great story-telling as far as content and narrative.

Found Out About You
by Gin Blossoms

All last summer in case you don't recall
I was yours and you were mine forget it all
Is there a line that I could write
Sad enough to make you cry
And all the lines you wrote to me were lies

Months roll past the love that you struck dead
Did you love me only in my head
Well the things you said and did to me
Seemed to come so easily
The love I thought I'd won you gave for free

Whispers at the bus stop
I heard about night's out in the school yard
I found out about you

Rumors follow everywhere you go
Like when you left and I was last to know
Well you're famous now and there's no doubt
In all the places you hang out
They know your name and they know what you're about

Street lights blink on through the car window
I get the time too often on A.M. radio
You know its all I think about
I write your name, drive past your house
You're boyfriend's over, I watch your lights go out

Terry Tate: Office Linebacker

These shorts are hilarious. They've been out for awhile, but I've just re-discovered them. Thought I'd share:

http://www.returnofterrytate.com/

Interesting Typography

I think an interesting example of typography is handwriting.  I've posted two pages of my wife's handwriting, which receives compliments of being so nice and neat ALL THE TIME!  I actually don't like her handwriting at all!  I've also included two pages of my handwriting.  And yes, I have terrible handwriting, I admit it.

I just think it's interesting to see and notice handwriting of different types all around.  Mine is terrible because I write really fast and therefore things look sloppy and messy and often times illegible (even to me).  My wife's writing is always consistent and consistently "neat".  There are people whose handwriting is incredibly small and people whose handwriting is, well, too large or messy (i.e. doctors handwriting) and so forth.  I think it's very interesting to compare and notice the different types.

Interesting Typography 2

I think different typefaces that restaurants use can be very interesting and in a ways, informative. I'm sure a lot of thought goes into designing the typefaces for restaurants to convey the sense of the food being sold. I thought I'd pick four mexican places to show different typographic elements. 

Chipotle, Baja Fresh and Qdoba all have an organic feel while California Tortilla is very angular and sort of harsh.  I'd say California Tortilla conveys the feeling of the tortilla chips; triangular, sharp edges and corners, etc.  Baja Fresh and Qdoba both have some sort of imagery involved in their names, which also gives you a mental image or sense of the food. Chipotle doesn't really rely on any imagery and just uses typography. 

  

The Far Side

I was thinking about an example of words and images combined to create some sorto f creative art. I was looking around on my desk and saw my Complete Far Side Collection by Gary Larson and thought what a great example of words and images.  Gary Larson cerated simple art and combined it with witty writing to create one of the world's most popular comic strips.

Mostly all of Larson's comics are single rectangular boxes that illustrate some sort of conflict. Be it man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs. animal, or even animal vs. animal, as Larson tended to anthropomorphize animals in many of his comics.

During his career, Larson had been criticized about many of his comics to be insensitive to certain social issues (such such as violence against animals and humans), and insensitive to certain groups of people.  Larson had claimed that hte people who had protested agaisnt his comics often misunderstood his purpose and humor.

Looking at all his comics, it's wonderful to see the distinct world Larson created within all of his comics. The citizens, animals, houses, buildings and all other elements of his world have a very difinitive look and feel. In my opinion, Larson's work is very creative and often times an outright, and at the same time, a subtle comment on society and certain social issues.

A Couple of Beavers

I thought this was great!  It was from our Lanham reading.  It's a letter from a bureaucrat in the Official Style to a home-owner regarding a community "violation". The second paragraph is the home-owner's response to the bureaucrat.

It has come to the attention of the Department of Environmental Quality that there has been recent unauthorized activity on the above referenced parcel of property. You have been certified as the legal landowner and/or contractor who did the following unauthorized activity: Construction and maintenance of two wood debris dams across the outlet stream of Spring Pond. A permit must be issued prior to the start of this type of activity... The Department has been informed that one or both of the dams partially failed during a recent rain event, causing debris dams and flooding at downstream locations.  We find that dams of this nature are inherently hazardous and cannot be permitted... Failure to comply with this request, or any further unauthorized activity on the site, may result in this case being referred for elevated enforcement action.

A couple of beavers are in the (state unauthorized) process of constructing and maintaining two wood "debris" dams across the outlet stream of my Spring Pond. While I did not pay for, nor authorize, their dam project, I think they would be highly offended that you call their skillful used of natural building materials "debris."... As to your dam request [that] the beavers first must fill out a dam permit prior to the start of this type of dam activity, my first dam question to you is: are you trying to discriminate against my Spring Pond Beavers or do you require all dam beavers throughout this State to conform to said dam request? If you are not discriminating against these particular beavers, please send me completed copies of all those other applicable beaver dam permits... I seriously hope you are not selectively enforcing this dam policy-or once again both I and the Spring Pond Beavers will scream prejudice!

(Wall Street Journal, 3/30/98; the article concludes: "The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality informs us that the case has been closed.")

(Favorite) Words

Well, not really my "favorite" words, but words that mean something to me:

mother

father

cry

sleep

smile

pain

fear

love

dream

air

water

sun

moon

rain

To me, these are some things that everyone, everywhere, no matter what, have in common.

Not my favorite word, but...

I apologize beforehand if this post offends anyone. I don't mean to offend anyone with this entry, but I thought it would be an opportunity for me to post an interesting project that I did for a class I took during my undergrad program at UMBC.  

I did an Installation Project where I created nine posters that had the word "fuck" painted on in different typefaces/styles to invoke different emotions. I also wrote down several different emotions on paper (i.e. hate, anger, fear, love, etc.). I had everyone in my class say the word "fuck" with the emotions that I had written down and I recorded them on a tape player one person at a time. So on about 3 tapes, I had the word "fuck" being said in a lot of different ways, voices and interpretations.  

After that, I went into MS Word and printed about 100 more sheets of just the word "fuck" on them in tons of different typefaces. I hung all those sheets all around the walls of classroom along with the nine posters. I then hid 3 tape players around the classroom and starting playing the 3 tapes of everyone saying "fuck" in different ways. I re-arranged the tables in the room so that it constructed a maze pattern. I had everyone walk through this maze and listen to "fuck" being said in many different ways and seeing "fuck" written on the walls in many different typefaces. The effect was that it seemed as if the walls were actually speaking, but saying this very vulgar and explicit word.  

I picked this word because I think that in our society, negative things become prominent because of certain aspects of society. Profanity becomes cool because someone considered cool on TV or in the movies swears by it (pun intended). We as a people become desensitized by thing that are censored and the very content that we try to protect kids from. It's a harsh reality when the kids themselves are embracing negative things.  

I mean, there are worse things happening out there than bad words, but I picked this word as an example that even though we know it's profanity and it's censored (on TV, on radio, on certain non-premium Cable channels, etc.) we tend not to flinch anymore when we do hear it. We've simply come to include it in our everyday language. I guess I just wanted to make a social comment on us being desensitized to this word.

Digital Painting

One of my most favorite pieces of digital art is a digital painting I found a long time ago on a website called http://www.digitalblasphemy.com/. It's titled "Tropical Moon of Thetis" and its imagery really captivates me! It's a beautiful painting that invokes feelings of awe and imagination. Astrononomy is a great interest of mine and seeing these imaginative and really incredibly rendered paintings really inspire me.

"Tropical Moon of Thetis" depicts a fictitious moon orbiting the planet Saturn. The artist took liberties to create a tropical environment on the moon which he named Thetis. The moon, of course, doesn't exist and the name is a derived from an actual moon of Saturn's called Tethys. Tethys is a dominantly icy moon that's riddled with impact craters and is in no way harboring plant life as depicted in the painting. So it's really nice to see something like this turning fact into wonder. Images such as this often make people think about what's out there in the Universe.

Tropical Moon of Thetis

Kuchipudi - An Indian Classical Dance Form

Kuchipudi, one of India's seven main classical dance styles, combines fast rhythms with fluid movements, creating a nice blend of control and abandon, strength and delicacy.

Archeological evidence and literature trace the origins of Kuchipudi to the 2nd century B.C., but little is known of who shaped and propagated the art form, until the 14th century. Many of Kuchipudi's distinctive features, as we know them today, have been traced to the innovations introduced by the brilliant scholar, performer and dancer, Siddhendra Yogi, who lived in the 14th century. He had inherited an all-female dance form that had fallen into grave disrepute. Siddhendra Yogi, through hard training of young Brahmin boys and dedication, succeeded in rejuvenating Kuchipudi. For the next six centuries, Kuchipudi became established as an all male dance tradition.

In the early 1900s, another towering figure in Kuchipudi - Vedantam Lakshminarayana Shastri - once again changed the dance form's stylistic direction. He moved from the little village of Kuchipudi, the birth place of this art form, to the larger metropolis of Madras (now Chennai), a major center for art and culture in India. His talent and brilliance was immediately recognized. He introduced women to Kuchipudi and choreographed several solo dances, which have become part of the Kuchipudi repertoire today.

His student, and today's foremost exponent of Kuchipudi, is Guru Vempati Chinnasatyam. Guru Chinnasatyam further popularized Kuchipudi worldwide. His choreography is known for its creativity, polish, refinement and complexity.

-Anuradha Nehru of Kalanidhi Dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGhxTMIPZag

Classification Example

Voter's Guide To the Issues

I found this example of classification in a magazine. The main topic is about the Elections. Prominent political and social issues make up the different categories and there are a couple of party platform points for each category; two for Democrats and two for republicans. Each category is treated the same visually and they're all consistent as far as design and writing.

DC or Marvel

DC and Marvel Comics are the two leading Comic Book giants in the industry and the rivalry between them are the stuff of legend. While DC is home to such characters as Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Marvel claims popular characters such as Spider-Man, Captain America and the X-Men.

Both sides have a healthy amount of competition with each other, but there are also times when they'll have their characters crossover into each others universes for team-up stories. These are always fun!

The factors that really differentiate the two companies, I feel, are the ways their heroes (and oftentimes villains) are portrayed. DC tends to place their characters in fictitious cities and environments (i.e. Metropolis and Gotham City) whereas Marvel aims to put their heroes in real places (i.e. New York City and Washington DC). This element of realism tends to give Marvel the upperhand. Another element that Marvel is very successful at is giving its heroes a real life. Spider-Man could be the ultimate hero, but he also has bills to pay. DC, for the most part, hasn't given its characters such attention. This very important aspect sets the Marvel superheroes apart significantly.

At the end of the day, comics are one of the ultimate forms of escapism. Like films and TV shows, comics bring to life extraordinary characters and stories that engulf people's imaginations. Comics also serve as a form of modern day mythological story telling deeply rooted in traditional, classical and cultural mythologies from a vast array of societies. Along with that comics are also a potent form of social commentary, ranging from racism to a number of social injustices occuring in our world. Best of all, comics give us a little time to get away from the real world and enter one in which a man (or woman) can fly.

From Comic Pages to Silver Screens

The first superhero to get the more mainstream and modern Hollywood treatment was Richard Donner's "Superman" in 1978. Since then such notable characters as Batman, Spider-Man and the ever popular X-Men have ended up on the big screen. Hollywood has definitely found a rich source material to rely upon to garner high grossing blockbusters. And each new superhero movie seems to raise the bar on films based on such beloved comic book characters. Below are some statistics on a few superhero films that have been given the Hollywood treatment.

Superhero Film	Budget	Worldwide Gross
Superman (1978)	$55,000,000	$300,200,000
Batman (1989)	$35,000,000	$413,200,000
Blade (1998)	$45,000,000	$131,237,688
X-Men (2000)	$75,000,000	$295,999,717
Spider-Man (2002)	$139,000,000	$821,606,375
Daredevil (2003)	$80,000,000	$179,143,518
Hulk (2003)	$137,000,000	$245,160,047
Batman Begins (2005)	$150,000,000	$371,824,647
Fantastic Four (2005)	$87,500,000	$329,495,569
Superman Returns (2006)	$204,000,000	$391,120,000

(Super) Heroes

HEROES is a very popular sci-fi drama on NBC that centers on ordinary individuals who find they are gifted with special abilities. There are many characters and abilities showcased on the show and they are classified into categories.

MENTAL abilities:

Clairvoyance - the ability to see visions of people and locate them just by thinking about them.

Telekinesis - the ability to move objects with the mind.

Telepathy - the ability to hear others' thoughts and send thoughts into others' minds.

Intuitive Aptitude - the ability to analyze complex systems and intuitively understand how they work without special education or training.

PHYSICAL abilities:

cryokinesis - the ability to freeze matter.

pyrokinesis - the ability to create and control fire using the power of the mind.

phasing - the ability to walk through solid matter.

induced radioactivity - the ability to manipulate the movement of subatomic particles, thus generating and emitting toxic radiation.

While mostly all of the characters possess a single ability there are two characters on the show that have taken on multiple abilities and thus don't fit into any of the categories.

http://heroeswiki.com/Portal:Abilities

Call To Action 3

Check these Uncle Sam posters out!

http://www.sonofthesouth.net/uncle-sam/uncle-sam-posters.htm

Call To Action 2

I just had to post this because of it's title. It's one of the first things I thought of when I read this weeks Assignment Sheet. :)


"Call To Arms"
by Angels & Airwaves

There's a little black dark scar tire divide
This is it, can you hear me?
Have you ever felt a shattered heart buried alive?
You can do almost anything
There's a little red bridge with the view of the sun with a lake
Recommends such a setting sight
And the thousands of stars come out thousands of times
We can go, only if you believe. Only if you believe.

Do you feel like you've lost everything you can lose?
This is it, can you hear me?
When you cry do your tears ever chill the room?
Calling out every moment of need.
Do you ever lay awake with a look in the eyes?
Oh God, if a wish is too big to deny
I will offer a line, and it's ready for use.
Let me know, are you ready for me?

I'd like to say that you're my only fear
And when I dream, it slowly disappears
And when I wake, I'm right here by your side
To feel your heart beat in and out of time

When the storm brings rain, snow, fate of all kinds
You can feel almost anything
When the day seems to melt, fall flat in the night
You can feel almost anything.
When you can't get up, you gotta get up and try
This is it, can you feel me?
When the bombs come down, you will make it alive
If you only, if you wanna believe.

I feel your heart

I'd like to say that you're my only fear
And when I dream, it slowly disappears
And when I wake, I'm right here by your side
To feel your heart beat in and out of time

Call To Action!

This is the front and back of a 5x7 postcard that is a call to arms against Human Trafficking. The front of the card has a very simplistic look and feel to it. The back of it has several layers of information.

The images are kinetic and conveys a certain urgency. Human Trafficking is an issue that, I feel, people don't really think about when it comes to social issues. Mostly people tend to focus on poverty, hunger, war and other more highlighted issues.

This postcard doesn't really do much to inform the viewer about the in-depth details about Human Trafficking. It rather redirects the viewer to the what the postcard is actually trying to convey... the website that will inform the viewer to all the details of Human Trafficking. The website offers a lot of information regarding what Human Trafficking is, Resources, Preventative information, Newsletter information and more. It's a very informative site and the postcard is thematically connected to it from a visual perspective.