Month: January 2007

Her business plan has the venue reopening by mid-February as a cinema, followed by a live-music, dance, cabaret and theatre venue as the building’s infrastructure is improved. Visual art will be showcased in the foyer, and podcasts and streaming video of performances will be offered online.

The theatre’s proximity to both the Vancouver East Cultural Centre and the W.I.S.E. Hall doesn’t worry Holmes. “The W.I.S.E. Hall is actually talking about lending us equipment to get us started faster, because if we can create a community of theatres here, we’ll be way stronger, and hopefully we can even improve this area.”

Full article at Globe & Mail 

Here’s an ongoing project I’m doing. Mostly for art reference, also just because I think it’s neat.

A. Set up lights and don’t forget to charge digital camera!

B. Invite friend over

C. Take photos of friend’s face from all different angles.

D. As C, but have friend emote as follows:

1. Angry (small)
2. Angry (big)
3. Sadness
4. Stern
5. Happy
6. Quizzical
7. Surprised
8. Scared
9. In pain

Here’s how it went with Mr Chris Geisel:

Who wants to be next?

“Deep Australia” will search for the elusive giant squid that can grow to 20 meters, as well as pygmy blue whales and big sharks that are known to live in the deep ocean.

I decided to burn all my Fugazi CDs to iTunes today, and listening to Repeater really took me back to the time I was working at the TransCanada Waterslides in Chilliwack/Popkum. And since it’s a new year, and I just finished putting my calendar away, let’s just bring it back with all the other calendars in the drawer and see what I was doing around this time for the past few years. JUST FOR SHITS AND GIGGLES!

1987 (Energy Mining & Resources dept of Canada) – I’m in grade 12! Buying comics, playing Power Enterprise no doubt, and hanging out with Dennis, Ken, Garett, Richard, Fred, Dean and Chris. I was drawing a comic strip called THE EVIL KILLER BLACK CHICKENS so I must have been living in Rosedale. 1989 (Birds & Beasts by Raul del Rio – really awful!) – all I have written down is what comics I was buying: Cosmic Odyssey 4, She-Hulk 1 and West Coast Avengers 44 (ew). HOWEVER – in March I get trapped in an elevator. So I was definitely going to Fraser Valley College. Was I living at Cultus Lake yet?

1990 (Ghostbusters II calendar) – I think I was dating either Pam for about 6 months at this point. Playing a lot of Power Enterprise (my superhero roleplaying game).

1991-1994, I don’t seem to have any calendars for these years but I imagine that I was working at DeVry greenhouse, the waterslides and the Bookman, and dating Margret.

1995 (Cyber-Cthulhu) – I had met Lindsay and was possibly dating her, was playing D&D with Chris, Warren & Bob and I think I was working at The Book Man while being on welfare.

1996 (Cyber-Cthulhu) – still living in Chilliwack. Playing Magic: The Gathering and doing rock shows at The Hungry Eye and The Niagara. This was the year I was dating Lindsay and moved to Vancouver.

1997 (Cyber-Cthulhu) – dating Amber (for another week or so).

1998 (HR Giger calendar) – working on the art for Cults Across America and living with Kenny B in this very apartment. I was dating Shelly and it was snowing. The band had just played a new year’s gig at the Royal Hotel in Chilliwack with Mystery Machine and we played “The Innsmouth Look” for the first time live.

1999 (Edward Gorey calendar) – I was working at Macneill Library Services, doing art for Wizards of the Coast, dating Gina and getting ready for the second annual Saturday Morning Cartoon Party. I guess that would make this year’s the tenth!

2000 (Edward Gorey) – took a trip to New York, stayed with Thomas.

2001 (AdBusters – with Chris’ art) – Dating Tinessa. Playing D&D with Theo, Jon, Rob & Nathan. Drawing a lot of D&D art. I believe at this point I may have quit MLS and was working full time from home on art.

2002 (The Art of Marvel) – Playing quite a few shows with the band – The Cobalt, Area 51 and then the Pic Pub.

2003 (Cult Attack movie posters calendar) – playing lots of RPGs like Call of Cthulhu with Palle, Don, Sam & Mike, M&M and D&D. Met James and started rehearsing for Ed’s short film “Graveyard.” I had just met Sheri.

2004 (Gothic art by Barry Moser) – hanging out with Yvonne, Ursula & Anghold; Got drunk for the first time in probably 13 years; mentoring Liam on designing a Role Playing Game; playing D&D, Mutants & Masterminds and Call of Cthulhu.

2005 (Edward Gorey calendar) – it was snowing. I was spending a lot of time with Marlo but we hadn’t started dating. Playing D&D.

2006 – Talking with a guy from VFS about doing a Thickets DVD package – which ended up fizzling out. Getting fat on shawarmas and bubble tea.

Spider-Man 3. I don’t care for Kirsten Dunst, so it should be interesting to see a different romantic interest in this film. I think Sandman is a decent choice for the bad guy – but I hope they get to Mysterio soon. He’s my personal favourite.Transformers. There’s always room for giant robots. I WANT THE ORIGINAL VOICES!!!

Pan’s Labyrinth is supposed to be really good! “Del Toro has said the film has strong connections in theme to The Devil’s Backbone and should be seen as an informal sequel and some of the works he drew on for inspiration include Jorge Luis Borges‘s Labyrinths, Arthur Machen’s The Great God Pan and The White People, Lord Dunsany’s The Blessing of Pan, Algernon Blackwood, Pan’s Garden, and Francisco Goya‘s Saturn Devouring His Son ^[4].”

No Country for Old Men is the new Coen Brothers Film. I hope it’s better than the last two, Intolerable Cruelty and Ladykillers. But if it’s half as good as The Big Lebowski or Miller’s Crossing I’ll be pleased as punch! But where is Buscemi, Polito and Turturro? It would be nice to see them back, no?

Gedo Senki, AKA Tales from Earthsea is a recent Studio Ghibli film. It wasn’t done by Hayao Miyazaki, but by his son. It’s based on the books by Ursula K. Leguin, of which I started to read one and it seemed decent.

Rarratouille. Cars is the only Pixar film I haven’t seen. The subject matter just doesn’t interest me. And there are way too many talking animal CGI movies, but with Patton Oswalt in the lead role, I’ll be there.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. The first FF was dreadful. Terrible. Awful. So why am I looking forward to the sequel? Good question. I guess I just love Galactus a little too much.

28 Weeks Later. Follow-up to the UK quasi-zombie flick.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Why not?

My Name is Bruce. Bruce Campbell directs and plays himself in this sort of sequel to Army of Darkness. Should be fun.

Superhero! which is apparently to superhero films what Scary Movie is to the modern thriller. With Leslie Nielson, directed by David (Airplane!/Naked Gun) Zucker.

I’m not a Harry Potter fan. I have a problem with the writing (in the movies – never read the books) and only the adult actors interest me. For me the franchise is mostly about the fantasy connection. Here’s hoping that Order of the Phoenix will be better than the others.
No Wes Anderson film this year. Sniffle.

Some interesting personal numbers from 2006

1. Girlfriends Gained: 1
2. Girlfriends Lost: 1 (not in that order)
3. Thickets shows played: 4
4. Thickets shows played with NOMEANSNO: 1
5. Mandarin classes attended: 11
6. Mandarin phrases remembered: I’ll get back to you on that…
7. Roleplaying campaigns played: 5
8. Pounds lost: 40
9. Pounds gained back: 10
10. Migraines: 5
11. Slackademics Classes: 4
12. Skinless corpses viewed: scores
13. Dollars spent on getting to and from Chilliwack to practice with the band: ~1240

THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN 2007

1. 2007 Saturday Morning Cartoon Party
2. Another birthday auction?
3. Zombiewalk
4. Critical Mass
5. Ukelele Circle
6. CampyCon
7. Drexoll 24 Hour Game-A-Thon
8. A new Thickets Album
9. Chris Wood’s art show
10. My Comic Book
11. Children’s Book (with Dan)
12. More Slackademics Classes (But what?? You tell me)
13. Weathertop Gaming Convention
14. Cool Movies (see next post)
15. More movies at The Rio

Got anything to add?

It’s not confirmed, but mark January 20 down on your calendar for a possible show of The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets with The Hanson Brothers at the ANZA Club.

Also – wow! Check out the movie schedule today on Turner Classic Movies!

11:00am		Red Planet Mars (1952) Radio broadcasts reveal Mars to be a source of religious inspiration. Cast: Peter Graves, Herbert Berghof, Andrea King. Dir: Harry Horner. BW-87 mins, TV-PG
12:30pm		Destination Moon (1950) A crusading scientist defies the government to launch an expedition to the moon. Cast: Warner Anderson, Tom Powers, Dick Wesson. Dir: Irving Pichel. C-92 mins, TV-G
2:00pm		Quatermass Xperiment, The (1956) A space fungus transforms an astronaut into a deadly monster. Cast: Brian Donlevy, Jack Warner, Richard Wordsworth. Dir: Val Guest. BW-78 mins, TV-PG
3:30pm		Blob, The (1958) A misunderstood teen fights to save his town from a gelatinous monster from outer space. Cast: Steve McQueen, Aneta Corseaut, Earl Rowe. Dir: Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr. C-82 mins, TV-PG