goodreads
Awhile ago, I discovered goodreads, an online database for your personal library. I found it through twitter, thanks to @feliciaday.
Here’s my bookshelf. You can sort your books by organizing them on different ’shelves,’ and tag them as well. Mostly it makes me realize how many books I’ve bought and haven’t read yet. I’m pretty sure I have a problem. I love books too much.
Anyone know of similar sites for vinyl records?
Back to books, here’s a great link to the best used bookstores in Toronto from blogTO.
Heart Truth
Just finished a three-day edit for Fashion Week here in Toronto. The video is a behind the scenes + fashion show for The Heart & Stroke Foundation’s Heart Truth which is an awareness campaign about the risk of heart disease and stroke for women. The fashion show featured Canadian celebrity volunteers wearing Canadian designer’s clothes. We weren’t the production company behind the shoot, but we were given beautiful HD footage of the show and four hours of great behind the scenes footage to edit together into a 5-7 min video.
The rough is just done now, and I’ll be making any changes tomorrow or Monday. I believe it will be posted sometime next week.
JoJo
Basically, this is the greatest thing ever. Everyone needs to see Jonathan Richman live. Watch how he totally wins over the crowd by the end. He makes me smile.
Spoke too soon, and a female Karl.
Morning after babbling on about spring being here, I take the dog out for his walk…and am met with…ugh…snow. Ugly, cold, miserable snow. At least the dog likes it.
So I was on the street car, and overheard a woman talking on her phone (to her mom) and had to write it down. She’s a female Karl Pilkington. If you haven’t heard of this man’s genius (and perfectly round little head like an orange) then you need to stop what you’re doing and educate yourself in all things Pilkington. You can start with The Ricky Gervais Show podcasts and then move on to Pilkipedia.
Anyway. Here’s what she said:
I hate it when I dream that I’m at work, working. It’s like I’m working while I sleep. Dreams are supposed to be relaxing, not work. It’s like I worked day and night.
Brilliant. She was serious too. Simply brilliant.
Spring thaw
Something about the beginning of spring makes me nostalgic. It could be it’s when I start to thaw. It could be the fresh smell of change. I like to think it’s the creative side of me waking up after a long rest, ready to take on the world, or something.
One thing is for sure: I feel alive. I feel creative. That itch starts, letting me know it’s time to create. I’ve been thinking the last couple days about what I should be focusing on, creatively. This is an issue that arises often for me. I have a hard time figuring out what project I want to attack. I don’t seem to have the ability to manage multiple creative projects at once. I’m not talking about jobs. I can go back and forth with corporate jobs without even really thinking about it. But when it comes to different venues of creativity, I have to stick to one. If I want to write my screenplay, then I can’t play guitar or piano. If I pick up the guitar, then I won’t draw for ages. If I’m invested in making a film, there’s nothing else that can get in the way. I suppose this may be normal, but I get frustrated when I try to figure out which to tackle.
Lately, or throughout the winter I suppose, the corporate world has taken over my work. I haven’t really been able to let anything I’ve really wanted to work on consume me.
Now I need it to. And the question is, which endeavor wins?
Does anyone else have similar issues? How do you choose what you need to work on? Is it more of which one can you not do?
I had coffee with my brother on Monday. We’re similar in a lot of ways when it comes to our passion for art. Different when it comes to our actual talent. The guy can draw. He lives and breathes art, even though the corporate IT work tries to suffocate it. We talked for a couple of hours about art and ideas and plans. It was inspirational and motivational. Think spring cleaning for my dull head.
So this is really the first spring blog post, I suppose. I’m writing it in Chapters, listening to Tom Waits and Coconut Records. I just took a break and wandered around. I read a bit of Charlie Kaufman’s screenplays Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Synecdoche, New York. I’ve decided my focus will be on the screenplay. There. Decision made. Sorry, guitar/piano/drawing/other. You didn’t make the cut.
A few design links
Just briefly:
Here’s a free font I love from dot colon.
From Design By Vent, periodic table Adobe Shortcuts.
You’ve probably seen these twelve animals created from a map of the world.
Some awesome free twitter birds from Luc Latulippe. While you’re there, check out his portfolio. Fun stuff.
Edgar Wright
Last night I went to see a double screening of two Edgar Wright films, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. He’s here in Toronto filming Scott Pilgrim VS the World, and so he presented his two comedies at the Bloor Theatre and also stayed for a Q&A.
I saw Hot Fuzz when it was first released in theatres, but only caught Shaun on DVD. It was so much fun being able to not only see these both on the big screen, but to see them with a full house of fans! Even when you know (and you know everyone else knows) when the joke is coming, or maybe I should say especially when you know the joke is coming, having a packed house laugh all together is…movie magical.
Edgar Wright was lots of fun too. He brought up on stage with him a printout of the imdb plot keywords for his films. These are user based words or phrases that actual people type in to help explain what the film is. He had the audience roaring in laughter at such ‘plot’ keywords as: “Cricket Bat,” “Lifting Person in Air,” “Old Lady,” and “No Opening Credits.” There were many more, and it struck me as a great way to open up a night of comedy. It started up the crowd.
Of course, the film was incredible. I love watching Simon Pegg’s reactions. Wright does such a great job of creating both an homage to and spoof of zombie films, while at the same time just making an incredible movie. I love the fast cuts- they always get a laugh out of me. Also, I tried to contain my glee (that’s right, glee) upon seeing The Office’s Tim and Dawn in the SAME FILM. Ok, so they don’t interact, but still. Its just so nice to see Martin Freeman and Lucy Davis in anything. I didn’t get the feeling many others were as giddy as me. Shame.
Oh, and Wright placed a couple of classic trailers before the film. Creepshow was one…I can’t remember the other. He also played the made-up trailer for ‘Don’t!’ which was part of the Grindhouse group. This was a ‘director’s cut’ with seven (I believe) extra ‘don’ts!’
For Hot Fuzz, some of the imdb plot keywords were “cake,” “fork,” and “spit take.” He told the audience to cheer and applaud like crazy whenever those elements came on screen…which they did. Again, more fun.
The film is hilarious, as I’m sure you know. More Martin Freeman…and! ! ! Stephen Merchant as the owner of the lost goose! Now I want to watch The Office again. The real one of course.
I should be British.
As is usually the case when I see something creatively astounding, I’ve had the strong need to make something. Write something, shoot something, just…inspired to create. I love that. Thanks Edgar!
Watchmen
So…maybe I’ve been waiting a good 15 years for it. Maybe I’ve read it once a year or so. Maybe when I heard it was in production I allowed my skeptical side go on vacation and geeked out a little. Am I hyping it too much? Can it actually be…good? I haven’t watched the trailer, read the reviews, or looked at the posters for more than 10 seconds. I have heard that it is good though. Really? Really?
I’ve never met him, but somehow I really trust Wil Wheaton. Maybe its that he gets it. And by it, I mean…it. You know. Stuff. Because he is all things geek and cool, he got to see an advance screening. He didn’t spoil anything, but he did say:
PAY ATTENTION, MY FELLOW GEEKS: YOU HAVE NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT.
Yup. He even said that the caps and bold were on purpose. Now tell me, have you ever read anything more assuring and soothing that that? In fact, the title to his post is Spoiler Alert: WATCHMEN is fucking awesome.
So I just bought my IMAX midnight screening ticket for Watchmen.
The International
Just saw Tom Tykwer’s The International. I’m not going to review it, mostly because I dislike reviews; I’d rather just see the movie myself based on who directed it/who wrote it/who stars in it (sometimes). Then again, I don’t watch trailers…so that says something about me and hating spoilers. Also, I find that I enjoy most films. I always try to find something I like, and if its not the film itself, then usually I’ll admire something technical.
With The International, what made me go see it was simply that Tykwer directed. I’ve really enjoyed every one of his movies, from Winter Sleepers to Perfume. (Princess and the Warrior and Heaven are beautiful, and Run, Lola, Run is just…cool.)
The International felt different from anything else Tykwer’s done, although at times I was reminded of the opening to Heaven. I was surprised to notice in the credits that Tykwer didn’t write the screenplay; I believe its the first film he’s directed without at least having a screenwriting credit. Maybe that’s what felt different to me? I kept thinking it was like a Ludlum novel. (I’m not really into spy/espionage/thriller although the Bourne books are fun.)
As usual, Tykwer’s cinematic aerial shots looked great, and he shot an incredible action sequence at the Guggenheim. I read afterwards that they created a life-sized replica- they shot the hell outta it.
Books!
Personally, I’ve started a screenplay. The idea started as a film noir, but it has evolved now to more of a darker comedy with noirish elements? I think? I’ve been scratching out ideas all week, and it looks like it’ll be a fairly convoluted plot, hopefully in a good way.
Last week put me on a mission to all the bookstores in Toronto to find anything by Raymond Chandler or Chandleresque. I couldn’t find his first Marlowe novel, The Big Sleep but I did buy Playback. I had never read anything by him before, and I was amazed. Playback was his last Marlowe novel (apparently he wrote four chapters of Poodle Springs before he died, and Robert B. Parker finished it afterward) so the character had already been established. I love how Marlowe is obviously street smart, but still makes mistakes, and gets his ass handed to him at times. Playback was written in ‘59, and there are some references that date it, but I wouldn’t have known the era Chandler wrote it in if I hadn’t checked. I’m struggling to figure out when my screenplay is going to take place. I have a love affair with times past, the thirties especially, but my producer side keeps telling me that I’ll just make it more expensive to shoot if I don’t make it modern. Still debating that one in my head. (Plus I keep thinking that I’ll have to rely on cellphones, internet, computers if I make it modern. I’d find myself saying: “Why doesn’t he just google it?” or “Use your cellphone! JUST CALL HIM TO WARN HIM!”)
Of course, I can’t go bookstore hopping and only get what I went looking for. More detective-types I found:
- The Glass Key and The Maltese Falcon by Dashell Hammett
- Find a Victim by Ross MacDonald
- Double Indemnity by James M. Cain
- Whodunit? Short detective stories chosen by Philip Pullman
Others that I couldn’t refuse:
- Swingers Screenplay by Jon Favreau
- Karlology by Karl Pilkington
- Bubba Ho-Tep Screenplay by Joe Lansdale and Don Coscarelli
- Hart’s Hope and Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card
- Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
- Zot! by Scott McCloud
- Interworld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves
- Belle and Sebastian Just a Modern Rock Story by Paul Whitelaw
- There’s Something About Jonathan (Richman) by Tim Mitchell
- A Natural History Dragons and Unicorns by Paul and Karin Johnsgard
Yeah, maybe I went a bit crazy. I’ll have lots of reading to do.
